FINAL DESTINATION: Armageddon
by iBenjamin
Summary: After foreseeing a tragic drawbridge-malfunction, Sam saves countless innocent lives, including his own. But now, each survivor is condemned to a more grueling demise as Death hunts and reaps its victims - tying every lose end in this final Armageddon.
1. Chapter 1: Death By Drawbridge

Death by Drawbridge

The rain was hitting hard against the car windows, smearing the views of the other drivers lined car against car. I squinted to catch a glimpse of any signs.

I was in the back of the car. Kerry, my sister, was sitting in the front passenger seat and her fiancé Brian was driving.

The windscreen wipers weren't doing their job very well. The road was nothing more than a dark, grey blur. Occasionally the wipers would smear a thin fountain of water from the front window screen to reveal a dull, solid, grey road leading towards a main road and, swallowed by a muggy fog a short distance away, the new drawbridge.

The car came to a slow halt behind a large queue of other cars. Beside us, a large family carrier stopped. The back window was open, and a small arm was poking out, flicking a piece of sticky chewing gum, without success, onto the floor.

I could just about see a small television screen on the back of the passenger's seat. By the looks of it, the child was watching '_Thomas the tank engine_."

"Amy – what are you doing, close the window," I heard the passenger say in a muffled tone from behind my, and her, windows. The little hand flicked the chewing gum, which flew into nowhere, and the window was drawn back up. All of the cars lurched forwards slowly.

I took a magazine from the fallen pile and flicked through it. My eyes glanced over the few headlines: '_Treacherous Train Crash Kills dozens – Survivors Interviewed…' 'Mayor Opens new city drawbridge …', 'My son was found dead in the shower. Here's my story …'_ I closed it.

"You okay back there?" Brian asked. "You're looking a little pale."

"'Starting to feel a bit carsick," I said. My stomach turned a fraction as the car slowly rumbled forwards.

"Brian, keep your eyes on the road," Kerry snapped. Brian's eyes flicked from the mirror to the window. "How far d'you think this traffic's going on for?"

"Probably the length of this bridge. One new monument and you've got the whole of America rushing to have the first ride on it." Brian grunted. Kerry rolled her eyes.

"It's not a monument," I started, "It's a stupid bridge."

"My point exactly-"

"-Eyes on the road!" Kerry's voice rose.

I closed my eyes for a second. I was tired and felt queasy. How long must I have to endure this ridiculous car ride, I didn't know. We were heading back from mine and Kerry's aunt's house. We'd stayed the weekend because I wanted to see the new puppies and Kerry and Brian wanted to tell her the good news. I could never see the good side of ceremoniously tying yourself to one person for the rest of you life. I hated weddings; the repetitive ceremonies were so tedious and fatiguing.

The car came to another, gradual stop.

We were on the bridge. A car nearby beeped its horn making me jump. I looked around but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. The rain had been reduced to nothing more than a light drizzle. Through the smeared back window I could only see the bored and anxious faces of the other drivers and front passengers.

"What is with this waiting?" I asked, turning back to face the front.

"It's all those damn construction lorries," Kerry said.

"Looks like there's a toll down there too – we've gotta' pay up." Brian said squinting through the smears left behind by the window wipers. "Can you see the price?"

"The sign says – for cars, three 'fifty." I read from a large, blue sign in the near distance. Kerry started rummaging in her bag to get her purse, while Brian fiddled with the window. He slowly brought his foot down on the accelerator as the car in front started to speed forwards. His eyes weren't on the road.

Suddenly a car in the lane next to jolted sideways to cut in front of us. Both cars gave sudden lunges as both breaks were stomped on. There was a loud, metallic crunch as they collided. Horns started beeping.

The driver of the other car was hardly visible behind a cloud of cigarette smoke. Through gritted teeth he swore at us. Brian slammed his fist against the horn and mouthed back at him. The driver swerved and cut in front, and drove forwards merrily.

"What an ass-hole," Brian cursed.

"Serves you right for not keeping your eyes on the road-"

"-_Don'_t, Kerry."

My heart was thundering tenfold. I felt, somehow, invisible in the back.

The red and white barrier came up, giving access to the other driver, who sped off with a greedy haste. Then our car came forward as the barrier came down, slowly. The man in the box looked bored out of his mind. He tapped away at a keyboard with no haste whatsoever, then took his bored glance from his computer screen to us in the car.

"'Three fifty, please." The man said as Brian rolled his window down fully. Kerry handed him the cash, and Brian dropped it into the man's outstretched hand.

Why was I still nervous? My heart had slowed down, but was beating hard against my chest. I closed my eyes and shook my head slightly as the barrier crept upwards to award us access to a small stretch of road before we came to a sturdy halt.

"Another queue?" Kerry breathed, "What is with this, _damn_, queuing?"

"I told you, it's them construction lorries. They're using their own bridge to get down town, they're probably building another bridge somewhere or some pointless sky scraper." Brian said, keeping his eyes firmly on the road. Just as he'd spoken, two, large, lorries lugging piles of large metal poles, and sheets of iron coloured metals went fleeting by three isles away.

This queue of cars moved more often than the last queue. Soon we were wedged near the close centre of the queue between rows and isles of cars, vans, buses and lorries. I could almost see the city hiding behind a thinning blanket of passing fog.

"We should have gone the normal way home." Kerry breathed.

"Why, this way saves _so _much more time?" Brian asked.

"_Time?_ We've been queuing for who-knows how long. In the time it's taken us to get over this bridge, we could have been over half-way home." Kerry finished. Her arms were crossed and she was looking the other way from Brian.

They weren't even married, and already they were arguing like an old married couple. By the look on Brian's face, he was thinking the same thing too.

There was a sudden rumble.

Kerry blinked and looked about quizzically. Brain frowned.

"What was that?" I asked slowly. There was no reply.

There was a second rumble, but more vigorous. The car seemed to vibrate for a moment.

"What was that-"

"I don't know, probably just a little earthquake." Kerry replied, unsure, "Keep going Brian." Brian put his foot down a little more and the car moved a fraction more faster. The other cars did the same thing.

Suddenly, there came an ear-splitting, metallic crunch and a sound like metal scratching hard against metal. Kerry swore but the word was swallowed by the terribly, loud noise. I slapped my hands over my ears – my eyes were flicking in all directions looking for the producer of this horrific sound.

Suddenly, the whole bridge seemed to rumble into action. There was a sickening, heavy pull as the part of the bridge we were queuing on started to rise. What was happening? Was it possible that a boat was coming? Was the drawbridge lifting with _us _on it?

I screamed. Fear had engulfed me along with panic. Kerry was screaming too and was shaking Brian's arm. His hands were white against the steering wheel. I could see Kerry's mouth repeating the same word "_Drive" _but it didn't help.

There was no explanation for it, but the drawbridge was rising, with queues of vehicles parked on it! Horns blasted deafly against the roaring bridge as it rose further and further. I watched as cars disappeared up front, over the edge and down the gap.

"_Get out of the car-" _Kerry screamed. I was trembling uncontrollably as I fumbled for the lock on the door. I heard Kerry's door clunk open as mine did. I pulled forwards to get out but the car next to us reversed and slammed against my door. I smacked my head against the window.

I swung my head back to see what was going on, feeling slightly dazed and very frightened. Brian was fumbling with his seat belt and was swearing uncontrollably. It was jammed. Kerry dived back into the car and started to help Brian. She looked up at me with watery eyes and spat, "_Sam get out-go!"_

"I can't!" I cried pushing against the door. The car next to me was screeching and letting off a lot of exhaust fumes. The bridge had risen further and gravity was starting to pull us back. The magazines had fallen against the back of the back, seat chair.

I crawled over to the other back, passenger door and pushed it open. It was difficult to keep it open as I swung my legs out and pulled myself up.

Kerry was kneeling with one knee against the passenger chair and was yanking the belt out of the lock. With a loud rip and thud, the belt came lose and Kerry hit her head on the roof.

There was an even louder, metallic, roar as the bridge vibrated and grumbled further backwards, forcing cars to start to, nearly, keel over. I slipped on the wet road and grasped the car door for support. Cars were skidding backwards onto our car.

I could see vast numbers of people fleeing towards me, all screaming with pale, terrified expressions.

Kerry came out of the car looking dizzy, followed by Brian who had climbed over the gear stick to get through the passenger door.

The bridge continued to rumble backwards. It was about time before it stopped, surely.

But it didn't.

I turned around to face the straight floor in front. There was a gruesome gap between the normal, safe, road and the elevating drawbridge. It looked so far away.

I started to run, holding on to as many cars as I could, not giving a single care when I broke the antennae or the side-view mirrors.

There was a loud screech as a bus nearby tried to reverse down. It slid sideways and collided with a car, which slid in our direction. Kerry yelled and pulled me sideways, away from the car, but Brian wasn't fast enough. The car crushed against his leg and he fell flat on his face.

Kerry screamed at the top of her lungs as he rolled downwards.

The bridge continued to rise.

I could hear Brian's terrifying screams of agony and fear as he slid over the bonnet and started to plummet down. Kerry's grip on me tightened to the extent that my arm was bleeding.

Brian's falling, screaming, body was gone as a lorry swerved in the way.

The lorry had long plastic ropes holding metal poles. A construction lorry. Kerry's screams of remorse couldn't be heard over the screams of the other drivers and the rubber tires screeching and the roaring, elevating bridge.

There was a sudden ping and a sound like a whip. Loud bangs and hollow, metallic-scraping noises told me that the plastic ropes holding the construction lorry's metal had been forced off. I looked round to see a man holding onto a large plastic rope, dangling slightly.

I slipped and fell into the back of a car bonnet. Kerry fell forwards too but nearly missed the car. She held onto the side with a desperate plea. I watched as a metal pole bounced from the floor and flew downwards towards a car windshield. With a hissing smash and a clatter of glass, the pole fled through the windscreen and came out the other end of the car covered in blood.

I felt sick.

"_Sam hold on."_ Kerry gasped.

The bridge was almost vertical. Cars were starting to plummet down and add to the pile of bodies and other vehicles. The car behind me was keeling over, I could see its shadow.

Suddenly, the car I was holding started to wobble upwards, threatening to fall. I threw my hand out and grasped the nearest fence. I could see over the edge of the bridge, and all of the hard rocks and water below. My heart was hammering in my chest.

There was a loud scream as a familiar family-carrier came rolling past producing loud cries from inside.

I didn't realise that I was sobbing uncontrollably. I was so frightened.

A familiar face came into view. I looked down to see a man inside the car we were holding. He was lying on the front bonnet, with his hands gripped firmly to the steering wheel through the smashed windscreen. In his pocket I saw a packet of cigarettes poke out and tumble downwards.

He looked up at me desperately. Did he, really, think I could help him?

Suddenly, the whole car keeled over. I let go just in time and slid, viciously, down the road. I collided with a nearby, upturned, bus.

Kerry's hair was hardly visible as it flicked upwards. I could hear her screams. Her last screams. I closed my eyes tight and screamed as loud as I could for her.

She was dead.

There was a pretty looking girl nearby with long blonde hair who was grasping hold of a bag, which was hooked onto a car's side mirror. She gave a gasp of fear and started to let out a scream, which was short lived as she half-collided with a keeling car. She spun as she fell spraying little blood in every direction.

The bus I was holding on to slid sideways. It was going to fall. I was going to die.

I climbed its side, grabbing hold of the little door where the oil is put in, then dragged myself across. The bridge had to go down.

But it had malfunctioned. Something must have gone wrong for this to happen. Why should it rightfully return to its natural position? I screamed louder. There was a rushing noise. I turned around to look up. A lorry was falling in my direction – a construction lorry. Metal poles and sheets were falling with it. I could see the driver looking right at me, screaming. The front became closer. I closed my eyes. My lungs tightened. I could feel pain. I was going to die. I cried out for help.

I opened my eyes.

I was sitting in the car again, with Kerry and Brian up front and a magazine in my hands. It was shaking uncontrollably. Kerry looked back as she heard its pages quivering in my hands. She looked at my dangerously pale face, and watering eyes. I was panting like I'd just run a mile. We were driving very, very slowly towards, what looked like, a drawbridge.

I felt frozen in my seat. Was it a dream? But it had felt so real. My eyes looked about the car in nervous flicks. Everything was blurred behind tears of relief and utter terror.

"You okay back there?" Brian said, "You're looking a bit pale." Kerry was looking at me quizzically.

"He doesn't look too good, Brian, maybe we should find somewhere to stop?" Kerry said looking at me.

"No, he'll be alright: won't you Sammy?" Brian said, looking up at me through the mirror. I was unaware that I was nodding slowly, whilst starring, terrified, into the abyss. I was going to be sick. But I didn't.

The car kept moving, further and further. The nearer to the bridge we got, the more sick I felt.

"Looks like there's a toll down there too – we've gotta' pay up." Brian said squinting through the smears left behind by the window wipers. "Can you see the price?"

There was a short silence.

"Three fifty," I choked. Kerry was looking at me when I said it. She'd seen that I hadn't, even, looked for the price. She frowned and looked out at the large, blue sign. Brian looked nonplussed.

"He's right – how did you know that Sam? Are you sure you're ok?" Kerry said.

I shook my head.

"He's going to be sick, Brian, we should have stopped-"

"-not in my car, ok Sam? Hold it in buddy-"

"-at this rate we won't get off this bridge in time."

"_Stop the car."_ I said louder than I'd intended. "_I'm not going to be sick just stop the damn car, now."_ The panic I'd felt before came back stronger than ever. It was only confirmed when I saw a familiar car start to turn it's wheels towards our lane and cut in front of us.

"_Watch that car!"_ I screamed out. Brian slammed his foot down on the breaks sooner than before and the other car happily swerved in front of us. "_We've got to get out,"_ I said as tears started to run down my face.

"Sam, what's wrong?" Kerry asked looking alarmed.

"The drawbridge – it's going to rise, people are going to die." I choked on the last word. Brian's eyebrows narrowed as he watched me in the mirror.

"What are you talking about?"

"We've got to stop them from putting the barriers up." I said without thinking. Before anyone could say anything more, I pushed the door open and jumped out of the car. Kerry took off her seatbelt and opened her door, ignoring Brian's objections. Brian tried to follow, but his belt was stuck.

I ran towards the barrier men sitting in their boxes. They hadn't yet noticed me. I caught sight of familiar faces looking at me confused. I saw the family carrier and the driver was arguing with the front passenger. When they caught sight of me they both fell silent.

Kerry was just behind me shouting out: "Sam get back here!"

I was ignoring her. It was her life I was about to save, as well as many others. I couldn't' think straight. All I knew was that something horrible was going to happen, and soon. I ran at the box and around towards the window.

The same, bored looking man faced me. His expression changed immediately. He looked alarmed.

"What are you-"

"_Don't put up the barrier-stop all barriers from going up. The bridge, it's gonna-"_ I was interrupted by Kerry who approached us panting.

"-Sam back in the car. I'm sorry he's just not well,"

"I'm not mad! The bridge is _going to go up! It's going to open!"_ I snapped. I didn't know how to word it correctly. How could I explain what I'd seen without looking mad? "Listen to me," I said urgently, "If you lift them barriers you'll be responsible for hundreds of deaths." Kerry grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me back. The girl in the car waiting to give her money over looked extremely annoyed. I noticed her blonde hair, and her pretty face. How could I have dreamt of her id I'd never seen her before? I shook off Kerry's words and hold, and ran back towards the barrier men. I could see barriers still going up, allowing construction lorry's to pass by.

I shuddered at the thought.

Then it started to happen.

There was that horribly familiar noise, the metallic scraping noise and the roar of noise as the bridge started to lift. Kerry looked from me to the bridge, shaking her head.

The blonde girl in the car hadn't driven forward for one minute, before she started to reverse. The man in the box stared up at the bridge. I could see clearly, now, as a scatter of cars and two lorries fell down the gap between both halves of the drawbridge. I could faintly hear Kerry's gasp behind the screaming. I walked backwards, watching it all happen again. I was sobbing harder than ever.

I tried to stop it all. I tried.

Someone grabbed me from behind – Brian. He pulled me backwards, fast, shouting something. There was a loud, metallic, bang as two reversing cars collided exactly where I'd just been. Kerry was running towards me and Brian. I could see the top of the bridge over the barriers, the barrier boxes and the signs.

Everything was a blur of fear and screaming.

I was dragged back to the car and thrown in the back. The car spun around and sped off away from everything, dodging other speeding cars. I turned around to catch a last glimpse of, what looked like, a large, mushroom cloud and bright, orange flames flapping everywhere.

I felt like I'd been deaf for the past five minutes when sound returned to me in that one moment. Brian was swearing without stopping, Kerry was crying down her cell phone to our mother and I was muttering without realising …

"_It's all my fault … It's all my fault …"_


	2. Chapter 2: The Way it all Works

The Way it all Works

The car came to its final, screeching, halt outside a well-varnished, wooden fence. Behind the fence was a familiar stone path, which lead up a small slope towards Aunt Lily's bungalow.

As we stepped up the slope, the front door above us was thrown open and Aunt Lily, wearing her usual purple jumper with jeans and sandals, ran down towards us. She threw her arms around Kerry, who was closest, with a cry of relief.

"'Worried sick-" She sobbed, "-all over the news-" She threw herself at me and hugged me tightly. "I was thinking the worst!" Kerry and Brian walked into the bungalow to the sound of the puppies yapping merrily in the kitchen. Aunt Lily kept her arm around me and walked me to the door. I closed the door and a small, brown Labrador puppy came flopping over in my direction. I couldn't smile. I couldn't feel that bubble of love or joy. I felt sick and tired.

Aunt Lily was already in the kitchen, and I could hear the gentle, deep breath of the kettle boiling. Brian came back into the hallway and led me into the kitchen where I took a seat near the open window.

The kitchen, like the rest of the house, looked very well looked after. It was clean as anything, which was surprising considering Aunt Lily had four small dog's and one big one walking around. A row of counters, an oven, a fridge, a table with four chairs and a small TV on a shelf made this kitchen.

Aunt Lily was talking to Kerry.

"- and were you close?" she said, "I mean, you couldn't have been caught in it, could you?" Kerry shook her head.

"No," she was thinking, looking into the cup of tea that Aunt Lily had handed her. "We stopped the car. Sam got out"

"Sam got _out?"_ Aunt Lily's worried stare fell on me, "Why? What was wrong?" She looked from me to Kerry, to Brian in the short silence that fell.

"Nothing serious," Brian lied, "He felt a bit car-sick, was all. We stopped at a gas station before we got to the bridge." Aunt Lily gave a small, worried, gasp.

"Oh and to think," she said, standing, leaning on a corner counter, holding her steaming tea in her hands, "If you hadn't stopped! Oh my lord- I dread to think." She put an arm around me once more and leaned her chin against the top of my head in an awkward hug. "You can hold yourself responsible for having saved your lives."

Those words seemed quite uncomforting, even if they weren't supposed to be. I gave a weak smile and nodded slightly. My stomach lurched.

"I think I'm going to go to the garden," I said. I needed more air. Aunt Lily nodded and left me to stumble off the chair and around the doorway, through the hallway and out through the back, door into her hillside, garden. The view was always beautiful here. Because the house was elevated, you could see quite far out, over pretty gardens and trees. I sat on a bench at the back of the garden under a leafless, leaning, tree.

The back door clicked open and closed, and Kerry joined me at the bench.

"Why did you leave Brian and Aunt Lily?" I asked.

"We need to talk, Sam." Kerry said, looking at me.

"Maybe I don't want to talk," I said quietly.

"Well you need to. What happened back there, Sam, it wasn't – normal." Kerry said, struggling to find the right words, "Whatever happened back at that bridge … I, just, can't understand it. I mean, what did you see? What _happened?_" There was a short silence. I shuddered to think. I could see the pale faces screaming, hear the terrified voices shouting for their friends and loved ones, and their own lives. My eyes struggled to hold back the burning tears.

"We …" I choked. Kerry rubbed my back. I wasn't going sick? I swallowed. "_We_ were on the bridge … it started to lift with _us _on it. I saw everything happen to _us_. We d-" I gave a dry sob. Kerry's eyes were watering. She knew what I was going to say. She shook her head slowly in disbelief.

"Stuff like this doesn't _happen_ in real life-" she sobbed, turning her glance out to the new sunset gleaming over the roofs of the other bungalows. I looked at her in disbelief.

"What?" She closed her eyes and shook her glance to the opposite direction of my own, "This _is_ real life, Kerry," I said, "I don't know how it happened, and I don't know why. After reading those magazines, those headlines – I, just, got this sick feeling. This feeling like dread, and fear. It was like …" I paused. The words were rolling from my tongue like someone else was speaking them. I didn't know what to say next. What could I really tell her? The truth? So I did. "… it was like I knew exactly what was going to happen, before seeing it but without realising it." It had sounded better in my head.

"What? So all of a sudden you're a psychic!?" Kerry snapped.

"Do you _think _I wanted this?" I said in utter disbelief at Kerry, "No I'm not a _fucking _psychic – nothing like this has _ever _happened to me before- do you recall me fore-seeing dad getting caught in that huge road accident?"

"_No_ – just shut up, Sam." Kerry sobbed. "He didn't die, anyways. He was in hospital for a few weeks- if that"

"He could have died."

Kerry stood up and stormed off back into the bungalow. She slammed the door behind her. She didn't like to think of dad in that hospital bed all those years ago. It broke her heart. He left the hospital in a wheel chair, and could never leave the wheel chair for the rest of his life. It took our mom ages to get used to looking after dad in more ways than she had to before. Helping him to shower. Helping him down awkward stairs he couldn't manage.

"You ok there, Sammy?" Brian said. He had walked out from the back door. As it closed I heard the faintest sob from the kitchen. "You got Kerry a bit upset there, wanna tell me what's up?" I looked at Brian with pure incredulity at his idiocy.

"We could have _died_, today" I said. Brian frowned and nodded.

"But we didn't." He said and left it at that. He went back into the bungalow and left me alone.

The next day, after a silent breakfast, Brian offered to go to the shops around the corner to get some groceries for Aunt Lily. Ignoring her objections, he walked merrily to the car and I joined him. He looked surprised when I closed the door of the front passengers seat.

"You sure you wanna come?" he said.

"Yeah. I, just, want to get out." I said. He raised his eyebrows and nodded his approval, then drove off up the road towards the nearby shops. We scanned around the market place, getting a few bags of vegetables and a bag of apples. Then we found a corner shop next to a post office. I stayed outside by the car whilst Brian went in to get some cigarettes. For the first time in a while, my head was clear and I felt perfectly all right. I hadn't noticed the lady staring at me by the corner shop door. When I did, our eyes met, and I looked away. Why was she staring at me? Was she about to try and mug me? I shuffled uncomfortably. She kept her eyes on me and started to approach me.

Brian came out of the shop and got to the car before her. When she noticed him she turned her glance from me and kept it that way, as I turned and knelt into the car.

When I sat down and buckled my belt in, Brian swore out loud.

"I forgot Milk- one second." He un-buckled his belt and bent out of the car and strolled back into the shop. The woman approached the car, looking at me once more. I knew she was going to speak, yet still I jumped when she did.

"I've seen you before." She said. Her hair was dark, and her skin was pale. She wore dark blue jeans and a brown, leather coat over her white shirt. I glanced at her, acting as if I hadn't heard what she said, and was wondering if she was, possibly, talking to someone else. Her eyes were still on me.

"Sorry?"

"I said I've seen you before. You're the one who got out of the car at the toll's." She said. I didn't reply to her. She came even closer and knelt down opposite my open window.

"It's all happened before-" she whispered, "-and you're not alone." I looked at her, alarmed and quizzical. "Don't play dumb you saw the accident before-hand. You had a premonition. You stopped people from dying yesterday. It's all happened before." She rummaged in her breast pocket to retrieve a small, rippled piece of paper with writing on it. She handed it to me. "You'll need this, soon. I'm sure you'll have questions." She stood up, turned away and walked off looking quite worried. When she turned the corner, Brian came back out of the shop with a pint of milk swinging in his hands.

"You ok, boy?"

"Yeah, fine," I breathed, crushing the paper in my hand and sneakily putting it into my pocket.

Night came slower than usual, and Brian and Kerry went to bed. Aunt Lily always went to bed late. Tonight, I saw, she had fallen asleep in front of the television, while the newsreader tried to explain the bridge accident.

"-_seems that a timer had not been reset after a ship passing had been cancelled earlier that morning and with the new construction…"_

I crept passed the living room and passed Kerry and Brian's bedroom. I could hear them talking about when we could next travel to get back home.

"-was alright with getting in the car today." Brian's voice came, "He'll be fine, Kerry, don't worry."

"I'm not," She said.

I passed the room and got to Aunt Lily's, where the computer was. The screen was on and lit up the corner of the room. I sat down on the chair, quietly, and rolled the mouse over to the "internet" icon. Once I'd done so, I put my hand in my pocket to retrieve the crumpled piece of paper. I pulled it out and unrolled it out on the desk. By the light of the monitor, I read "_Flight 180 – Alex Chance Browning. Junction 180 – Kimberley Corman." _And in smudged ink "_Wendy Christensen."_ I'd already looked at these names before, and knew of no books that might have their names, or no magazines. The internet was my only hope.

I typed in the first name: Alex Chance Browning. I tapped the "Enter" key.

An entire list of highlighted information appeared, each similar to the next. "_Treacherous Plane Crash … Flight 180 to Paris … Teenager killed in freak accident … Survivor of Flight 180 found dead in shower …" _I clicked the "Back" button. I typed in the next name: Kimberley Corman. I tapped the "Enter" key. Again, the list of highlighted information appeared. But something about it made my stomach turn.

"_Large motorway collisions … numbers dead … survivors killed in freak accidents …Officer Thomas Burke and a former __**Kimberley Corman**__ killed … Family mentions word of premonition … Son died in explosion at the farm …"_ My hand was shaking as I repeated the usual steps and started to type the next name: Wendy Christensen.

Not as much information came up this time. Some of it had no reference to the last heap of information regarding the other names.

"_McKinley High School Student enters science fair … McKinley High School memorial for students … __**Wendy**__**Christensen**__ photo editor … Julie __**Christensen**__ and Kevin Fischer interviewed … two survivors of terrible train accident …Funfair tragedy …"_

Suddenly, a familiar sickness came over me. As if a fog had swallowed me and the whole room – everything went white. I couldn't see, I couldn't breathe. Suddenly, an image passed over my eyes. An imagine I had never seen in my whole life. It was a still image of three girls at a theme park. The one in the middle looked so familiar. She was pulling a face and sticking her middle fingers up at the camera. The two girls beside her were hardly visible. The whole photo flashed before my eyes then vanished as fast as it came. The darkness of the room came back, but someone was leaning over me.

"_Sam_? Get up, come on,"

I was on the floor.

The light clicked on and half blinded me. I shielded my eyes. The image of the girl was imprinted in my head. I'd seen her before. It felt like Dejavu. Kerry had turned on the light and Brian was kneeling beside me, having sat me down on Aunt Lily's bed. Aunt Lily came in looking flustered with sleepy eyes.

"What's all the noise? Was someone screaming?"

All eyes were on me.

"I didn't scream." I said, unsure.

"You did. You were screaming at the top of your voice, kid." Brian said.

"I'm _not_ a _kid_."

"What is this you were looking at?" Kerry said. She was leaning down with her hand on the computer mouse, looking at the highlighted information on the screen. Her curious stare came to me. "What is this Sam?" Aunt Lily found the paper and glanced at it, then handed it to Kerry. Kerry scanned the paper, then looked back at the computer monitor.

"Where did you get these names from?" She asked.

"No one – I researched them-"

"Why are you searching stuff like this, Sam? It's awful-" Aunt Lily said.

"Sam!"

I vomited on the floor. Everything fell silent. A voice in my head kept repeating a name and the picture kept flashing in my mind. "_Julie Christensen … Julie Christensen … Julie Christensen …" _

Then another voice came into my head. A woman's voice.

"_It's all happened before … you're not alone …"_ Her face matched with the girl's from the image in my mind so perfectly, it was undeniable. I shook violently and vomited once more. Brian heaved me upwards and ran me to the bathroom toilet.

I heard Kerry speak from the room.

"There's a phone number on the back of this paper …"

The name echoed once more in my head.

"_Julie Christensen …"_


	3. Chapter 3: The List

The List

I slowly opened my eyes. The curtain had a small gap in it, and the sun beamed in straight into my face. I turned by back to it, and got up out of my bed. Everything span. I closed my eyes again and took a deep breath. My eyelids were like a blackout screen with an image being projected against them in a single colour. I could see a face clearer than ever. I could hear the name ringing in my ears as if someone had been screaming it aloud all night. I opened my eyes again, then got changed and left the room.

The house felt cold today. Had someone left the front door open?

I entered the kitchen where I saw Aunt Lily and Kerry. Aunt Lily was standing next to the oven, with a saucepan in her hand and a packet of bacon in the other. Kerry was sitting at the table with a mug of coffee in her hands. The television was on with the volume down low. They just been talking and stopped when I entered.

"Hey there, Sam. 'Want anything to eat?" Aunt Lily raised the pan. I shook my head and gave a weak smile of thanks. I sat on the chair next to the basket where the puppies usually slept, opposite Kerry. Her eyes were concentrating on the television.

The dog barked.

"Quiet Igor," Aunty Lily called out to the hallway. "I bet it's the postman. He's a bit early." She said leaning below the sink to grab washing up liquid to clean up a plate that Kerry must have finished with. Igor, the golden retriever, came galloping into the room. I didn't have time to wonder once more why Aunt Lily had named a female dog after a male, evil assistant from horror books. The dog was staring right at me – her dark eyes glaring deep into mine and her teeth were bared. She barked at me.

"Jeez –" Aunt Lily jumped around to face the dog, "What-is-_wrong_ with you?"

The dog barked again and snarled at me.

"What's wrong Igor? It's Sammy-" Kerry said to the dog, which paid no attention to her. Suddenly, a cold feeling swept over me. Goosebumps erupted all over my arms and legs. Igor gave a yelp like she'd been kicked and ran from the kitchen. I looked up at Aunt Lily. She looked dumbfounded.

By the looks of it, no one else but Igor and me had felt that coldness.

"I bet she's woken up Brian, now. He needs his sleep he'll be driving soon." Kerry said, taking one last sip of her coffee and placing it back down on the table. She got up to go to the bathroom.

"Driving? Where?" I asked,

"Home. We're leaving, today. We're going the way we came." Kerry replied. Aunt Lily started to rummage with the bin. She pulled out the black bag holding all of the garbage just as Kerry left for the bathroom. When Aunt Lily heaved the heavy bag upwards, it split, and garbage rattled and scattered all over the floor. She swore.

"-gonna have to wash the whole, damn, floor all over again." She left the kitchen to get the broom in the hallway cupboard. As she did, I noticed something lying face up on the floor. It had fallen out of the bin.

A small piece of paper with names of people I had never met upon it. Kerry had thrown it in the bin last night when I was going sick. I got up off the chair and picked up the paper. On the back was, as Kerry had seen the night before, a phone number.

"…_You'll need this soon … I'm sure you'll have questions …" _A female voice echoed in my head. I stored the piece of paper in my pocket and left the room. Aunt Lily returned muttering under her breath with a broom and a roll of black bags.

I went into the garden and waked right to the back where the bench under the leaning tree was. The sky was fairly clear.

I took my cell phone from my other pocket and tapped the number in. I pressed the phone to my ear. It rang for a few seconds, then with a small clatter someone answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi. It's me, Sam. I'm the boy you gave the paper too at the store." I said.

"I thought you'd phone sooner." She said, "So what do you need to ask?"

"A lot of things – and I haven't got much time. I haven't got enough money on my phone. Have you?"

"No." She replied.

"Can we meet somewhere?" I asked. I felt so strange, asking to meet a complete stranger, and yet the more I spoke to her, the more like a close sister she felt to me. It was an unfamiliar feeling, and it frightened me, but my heart told me this was the right thing to do.

"Where are you now?" She asked, she sounded like she was walking.

"I'm at my aunt's house. This isn't a good place – my sister is here and she'll freak out-"

"Meet me at the café near the store we were at last. It's just around the corner." She said, and hung up. How was I supposed to get there without being caught? I couldn't even lie and say I was taking Igor for a walk, because I was too scared of her for now, and I think she was scared of me too. I had to sneak out.

I was already outside, so all I had left to do was sneak behind the tree, climb over the fence and down the hill towards the road, which led to the shops.

It took me fifteen minutes, by foot, to reach the café. I knew, by now, they'd be wondering where I was. My time was limited.

I rounded the corner and found the café. It was really small and, if I hadn't been looking for it, I might have walked right by it without noticing its mere existence. There was a heavy sign over the door, which read "Lucy's Coffee Café." I entered.

Before me was a flight of stairs, and either side a table with two chairs. Beside the door was a desk with a woman there leaning and writing on a pad. She looked up at me as I came in then looked back down, chewing her gum.

I ignored her as she ignored me, then walked up the flight of stairs. I knew why she wanted me to meet her here, there was no one about! There was only one person behind a larger counter than the one downstairs, with a large coffee machine and a vending machine. I looked about. Near a window sat the woman. She saw me.

I walked up to her and sat down looking completely uncomfortable. She didn't look too comfortable, either. She looked worried.

"I'm Julie-"

"Christensen?" I interrupted. Her hands left the table and she looked at me as if I had insulted her.

"How do you know? Seen me under my sisters name on the Internet, is it? That stupid interview from the train. For your information," she said, "I didn't have a full blown conversation with that ass hole. He just sat there putting words in our mouths." She coughed, "We didn't even agree to that stupid interview. He just pounded us with questions-"

"I don't care about that," I said rudely. Julie seemed to agree. "You know what happened to me. How did you know?" She struggled for an answer.

"Well. Like I told you before. It's all happened before." She said, "It all looks pretty noticeable third time 'round."

"You mean, you've known someone to … see an accident before it happened?"

"I was related to her – she was my sister. Wendy."

Before she could speak again a worker approached her with a pad and a pen.

"Would you like something to drink." She looked up at him and shook her head, as did I. He left. When he was out of earshot, Julie continued.

"A few years ago, our high school had this pre-graduation ceremony. It was for Wendy's class year, she was older than me. She started taking snap shots for the yearbook and then got on a rollercoaster. We all did. She foresaw it crashing and saved a lot of peoples lives." She paused, "but then, things happened. Terrible things, to all of the people who got off of that rollercoaster. And it gets weirder, those things happened in the order the people sat on the rollercoaster. Starting with the people further up front, ending with us near the back. Wendy had taken photos, before, of everyone. Those photos showed how they were going to die. They showed Wendy's death, too. And mine."

There was a silence.

"But, you're alive." I said.

"Wendy helped me. It was only us three, Me, Wendy and Kevin that survived it that time. Then it came back."

"It? What?" I looked confused.

"_Death_," Julie said, "Death chases you around all the time, and it chased us down to an underground train station some time after the whole rollercoaster incident. Wendy had _another _vision."

I was listening intently.

"She saw the train crashing, killing us all in the similar ways that the clues in the photos showed. We all panicked. If we hadn't, we might not have survived, but someone in another carriage saw the whole commotion and pulled a rope stopping the train. When it stopped, we all got out and Wendy explained to us what she saw, telling us it all happened just as she read the number one-eighty in a mirror at a station. The mirror reflected the number on the train: zero, eighty-one, which explains why Wendy died first."

I felt confused.

"What? Death has some kind of … of _pattern_?" I said.

"That's exactly it. Death has a list, a list of its victims. Wendy saw the number reflected backwards in the mirror, therefore the deaths occurred in a backwards motion. Starting with her … ending with me." Julie finished.

"But what about the guy? What was his name … _Kevin_."

"Kevin's alive. He's locked up in a padded cell miles away. He lost it after Wendy died. He was scared. But the thing is, until he dies, nothing can happen to me. I'm safe … or I thought I was." Julie said, looking at me, "but the day I tried to go and visit him, just as I was about to pass over that bridge to get down town … you came out of nowhere."

I felt scared and sorry for Julie.

"So … what you're trying to tell me is that I should have died?" I said. Julie shook her head.

"No. I'm warning you of what's to come." She said, "What you saw: what happened, the people that died; all of those you prevented from dying … they're all going to die in strange, freak accidents. I'm not saying this to scare you, I'm saying this because it needs to be said. You can save them all, death can be prevented. Just look at me, and Kevin."

I felt a shudder of fear. Was this whole experience going to reduce me to a blubbering bag of fear in a nut house?

"Do you know who was killed first?" She asked.

"No. Tons of people were being killed at once." I felt sick, re-calling the vision. Then, the cold came back. The cold feeling like water filling up in the room and drowning me. I shuddered.

"Someone else has died." Julie said. "It's already happening."

"What?"

"That cold. Did you feel it?" She said.

I shook my head.

"That's death. The closer it comes to you, the stronger it'll feel. That's why we have to act fast, do you know any faces of people that died before you?" I nodded, then stopped. "You." I said.

Julie jumped back and looked at me, completely frozen with fear. She shook her head slowly.

"That's not possible-"

"You were in a car and a pole went through the windshield." I didn't know where these words were coming from. They were leaving me, again, like someone else was speaking them. Julie looked at me confused. She shook her head and said, "Someone else."

"I don't know, I-"

Outside there was a loud screech of breaks. I looked out to see Brian and Kerry storming out of our car looking up at the window. Kerry looked outrageously angry, and Brian looked confused.

"My sister is here." I said. "My _sister_! Brian! Them, they were in the accident!" Realisation hit me like a train at full speed. "Help me. Help them!" I said. Julie looked panic stricken. There was a loud bang as the door downstairs was thrown open and a thud of hurried feet as Kerry came storming towards me looking furious.

"What the _hell _do you think you are doing?" she looked at Julie, "Who are you?"

"Sam get out of here and into the car," Brian said aggressively.

"No," I said. Kerry stormed towards me and grabbed my arm. Her grasp was tight and familiarly painful. I could feel the blood dribble down my arm as she forced me out of the chair.

"_No, she can help us, you have to listen_," I was blabbing words that Kerry shouted over with threats and swear words. Brian was half way towards the stairs.

Suddenly, an excruciating screech and a loud whirr came from the coffee machine. Julie screamed and threw herself at Kerry and me and pulled us down onto the floor. The coffee machine exploded, and metal pieces, fragments of glass and boiling hot coffee flew in every direction.

Brian threw his arms in front of his face. Too late. He was blinded by scorching coffee and had glass in his arms. He stepped backwards. His foot caught a metal sheet from the coffee machine and his other slipped on the wet floor. I looked up in time to see his screwed up face fall down, and his arms and legs fly into the air as he plummeted down the stairs. There was a violent yell and a loud _crack._

Kerry screamed. The girl downstairs screamed.

Kerry jumped up from the floor and ran to the top of the stairs and let out a louder scream, a scream that lifted the hairs on my back and doused me in a coldness far icier than the hands of death.

I got up and, with watered eyes, looked down the stairs, and into the lifeless face of the mangled body on the bottom of the stairs, that was once Brian McLiam. I turned around to look at the worker behind the counter, screaming and swearing with glass shards in his left arm and soaking hair. Julie got up off the floor with a horrified expression.

Her eyes met mine.

Kerry's screams pierced the air in a familiar way that I had heard before, but they didn't stop like before. They remained.

"_Brian! BRIAN!"_ She ran down the stairs, two at a time, and gagged at the puddle of blood on the stairs. She fell on her knees at his side and buried her face in his chest. The worker downstairs was on the phone crying for an ambulance.

There was no use. He was dead, and the coldness that engulfed Julie and me confirmed this. But I knew who was next, now. I knew what was to come.

I looked at my sister and felt my heart knot. I knew she was next. But wait …

The whole vision flashed before my eyes once more, faster than ever.

… _Kerry fell forwards but nearly missed the car. She held onto the side with a desperate plea. I watched as a metal pole bounced from the floor and flew downwards towards a car windshield. With a hissing smash and a clatter of glass, the pole fled through the windscreen and came out the other end of the car covered in blood …_

I looked with a twinge of relief, and yet a dosage of fear at Julie behind me. She was trembling uncontrollably. Kerry was alive when Julie's death took part. _Julie _was next …


	4. Chapter 4: Back to the Theme Park

Back to the Theme Park

Brian is dead.

I kept repeating this horrible message in my head, to see if my body could accept the fact that I was never going to see him again. He was like a close friend to me, and my future brother-in-law. The more I thought of it, the more I felt like it was my fault. If I'd stayed at Aunt Lily's, they wouldn't have gone to the café, and Brian would still be alive … or would he? I closed my eyes and felt wholly responsible. Suddenly, a creeping thought came into my mind in a voice completely unlike my own. It spoke with a greedy sneer "_…if Kerry wasn't so determined to boss me about, she wouldn't have gone looking. If she hadn't gone looking, Brian would still be alive …"_ I felt sick at the disgusting thought. How dare I blame my sister for this? After all, I was the one who had this vision … I swore out loud and kicked the bedside cabinet.

Kerry had stopped crying out loud in Aunt Lily's other spare room for a few days now. The first week was, almost, unbearable. We stayed here all week mourning.

Mom and dad phoned us the night it happened and decided that they would bring us home after the funeral, which was going to take place in a week and four days, this Wednesday. I looked out at the garden through the window. It wasn't raining, for the first time since the incident at the café. I hadn't heard from Julie since last Saturday, when she left me a message apologising for our loss and telling me that more had to come. I hated her for it, but she was right.

I didn't understand why she was still alive. I felt ugly for thinking it, but the truth was that it was her turn to die next, but she hadn't. Not yet … I thought about it. If she hadn't contacted me in a while, maybe she was dead. But a thought nagged in my head. Something she had said before about the boy in the padded cell: Kevin. "_But the thing is, until he dies, nothing can happen to me. I'm safe …" _And I wondered. As long as she is alive, maybe death won't chase us? Does this mean that we're all relying on Kevin? But another thought came. Julie died in the premonition, which meant she was going to die nevertheless. But _I _prevented her death there.

I was confused. Maybe death decided to start anew. Maybe it skipped Kevin because there was no chance of him dying other than a natural cause; after all, there are no physical dangers in a padded cell.

I shivered.

All this thought of death and padded cells made me feel sick.

The phone beeped. I had another message. I clicked the "open" button to see it was from Julie. She was alive, after all. The message read: _We really need to talk. This is urgent. Lives depend on it. Meet me around the corner of your Aunt's house if you can. Text back. Julie._

She was panicking.

I replied "_See you there."_ And left the house. Nobody had bothered speaking to me properly since Brian died. They wouldn't care if I left the house. Kerry was ruined and mourning, whilst Aunt Lily kept herself to herself.

I walked around a corner to see a familiar dark blue car swerve around a later corner. It stopped and a door opened. Julie came out looking panic stricken.

"It's been some time," she said, out of breath. I nodded. She caught her breath.

"How's your sister been?" She asked.

"She's had better days." Was my reply. There was an awkward silence that I broke. "What do you want?"

"We need to find out whose next. The sooner we do, the better." Julie said.

"It's you." I said.

"No it isn't." Julie said. I frowned.

"How the hell can you be so sure?" I asked sceptically.

"Because I … I stopped it from happening. At the café." She said.

"Then it's my sister. Does that make you feel better?" I snapped.

"No it isn't." She said again.

I was getting extremely frustrated. It was me who had the vision, not she. Why was she bossing me about? She sighed.

"Look," she started, "That day at the café, when the coffee machine exploded I pushed you and your sister down. If I hadn't, your sister and I would have been caught in the explosion. You have no idea what could have happened." She said looking, almost, satisfied. I grinned.

"One problem with that theory. In the vision, Brian died before you and Kerry."

Julies face dropped. She looked annoyed.

"Has it not occurred to you that he might have still been alive, in the vision, when she died?" Julie hissed.

"You mean 'we' it wasn't just my sister. You died too." I growled. "Now, if you just wanted to piss me off, you've happily succeeded, now leave me alone." I turned around and was ready to set off back to Aunt Lily's.

"Wait!" Julie called. She turned me around, "There are still people who are going to die. And _you_. You can still prevent this!" She blurted. I wanted to _hit_ her, but it wasn't in my nature.

"So what do you expect me to do? Draw a _diagram_ of whose next?" I joked.

"It would help." Julie said with gritted teeth, "look, the people who are in danger have families just like Brian did. Do you really want them to suffer the same pain you have? Don't think I haven't felt it too … Wendy was my sister." Julies' eyes watered. She was realising it all as she said it, and looked hurt.

"Ok." I said. There was an understanding pause as our eyes met once more. "The only person I can remember seeing … after- Kerry." I thought hard. All I could see was the image of Kerry falling. It made me feel terrified and sick. If what Julie said was right, she was safe. Suddenly, a pretty face appeared in my mind, with blonde hair.

"A girl" I stumbled, "a girl with blonde hair, I don't know her name but she was holding onto a handbag and she -" I stopped. An incredibly icy chill suffocated me for the first time in ages. Everything went white. I felt my knees buckle. Before my eyes came an image. I saw the image of Julie with her middle fingers up at the camera, and her friends at the theme park. The image seemed to flicker and turn into something else. It was blurry as if it was moving. There was writing. "High Di e" written vertically in bright lights on a large ride. I could see a dark "v" having blacked out in between the "i" and the "e." There was a rush of wind and an echo of old, joyous, screams and cheers as the ride flew upwards and downwards. The image was moving. Then something exploded and I saw Brian's face before me looking shocked as he flew his arms to protect himself from the hot coffee and shards of glass. I heard Kerry's scream as his dead body formed in front of me in a white mist.

"Sam! _Sam!"_

I opened my eyes.

I was lying on the hard pavement with Julie leaning over me looking horror stricken.

"_High Dive_," I gasped as I was helped up off the floor, "A ride called High Dive, have you heard of it before?" I asked Julie in a hurry, "Come _on_ you must have seen it before!" Julie nodded quickly.

"It was one of the rides at the theme park the high school went to – why?"

"It has something to do with the girl, I know it. I think it's the cause of her death." I said, sounding confused and looking shocked at what I was saying.

Julie looked about as if seeking a random post with an arrow telling us where to go. She looked at me.

"We need to go the theme park, now." She said, "It's a few miles from here – get in the car, _come on_!"

We both ran to the car and as soon as we slammed the doors and buckled our belts in tight, Julie slammed her foot down on the accelerator. The tires screamed against the road and the car jolted off.

The car sped down the road as fast as possible. Now and then it had to stop at traffic lights behind other cars, when, finally, we came to a motorway and Julie stomped even harder down on the accelerator. The car flew down the motorway. Every five minutes I found myself looking down at my watch, wondering if this girl was still alive and whether or not we were wasting our time. Inside my heart, I knew that she was definitely at the theme park. It was as if I'd known it for a long time, like it was a date we'd made. I was panicking more and more.

A large rollercoaster track came into view. I heard Julie's breath quiver when she caught sight of it. We'd arrived at the theme park in just over an hour. Julie parked the car awkwardly in the car park and we wasted no time in sprinting up to the paying desk.

Julie threw her purse down on the desk without opening it. The worker behind the desk look at her with disbelief; he was probably wondering if she was mad. Suddenly, I caught a flash of blonde hair flicking passed and heard a tittering laugh. Walking passed a large merry-go-round I saw the pretty, blonde girl. She was with two other girls, one with very short brown hair wearing a cream coloured fleece, and another girl with blonde, short, curly hair who held a sporty looking rucksack.

I ran after them, ignoring the worker shouting after me. Julie shut him up by thrusting a handful of dollars at him and then ran after me.

A massive crowd of people bustled around me, and I lost sight of the girls. I span around and caught sight of Julie who was calling for me, looking in a different direction. Then, I saw it … _HIGH DIVE_.

It was a monstrously tall tower with seats crowded around it. The seats were lifting high in the air and dropping, then lifting again, and dropping. The people riding it were laughing ecstatically.

I ran towards it and saw the girls in the queue nearing the front. I yelled out as loud as I could, but my voice wasn't loud enough to over power the crowd laughing and the riders cheering. The ride slowed down and came down slowly. The safety belt holders flew up, letting the riders get off.

Then the people in the queue got on, including the girls.

I waved my arms and shouted at them

"_DON'T DO IT! GET OFF! LISTEN TO ME! GET OFF OF IT! PUT THE BELT BACK UP! GET OFF!" _The blonde girl with the short hair had put down her bag and looked up, right at me. She grimaced, and then looked away.

"_YOU STUPID BITCH YOUR LIFE IS AT RISK HERE!" _Julie had found me. The crowd became denser as they watched the riders pull their safety belt holders down and click them locked, nice and tight. The blonde, pretty girl was giggling. The girl with short brown hair pulled a face and removed her hand from the side handle on her safety belt holder. Her hand was covered in chewing gum. The other girls laughed at her as she flapped her hand about, trying to get it off of her hand.

A coldness came over me. I knew what was going to happen. An image flashed before my eyes quicker than any other image. I saw a young boy doing exactly the same, flapping his hand with a wod of gum stuck to his fingers on a rollercoaster. The image disappeared and I saw the ride had already started. It was lifting really fast and the girls were screaming with joy. Julie hadn't seem me blank out, she was flaying her arms and shouting at the ride attendant in the box.

Suddenly, a noise so similar to the drawbridge clanking deafened everyone. I jumped and span around. Above us, the ride was wobbling uncontrollably. The girl's high-pitched screams were no longer full of joy, but fear. From what I could see, as the crowd ran, pushed and screamed, the safety belt holders had come loose, and the riders were cascading from the ride and plummeting. One fell into the crowd and I heard a huge uproar.

Julie was staring, horrified, at the whole incident, her eyes wide. Suddenly, with a loud bang, a large section of the ride came swinging into the side crowd. There was a sickening splat as half of it was flattened and silenced.

The ride continued to jump up and down.

The ride assistant was smacking buttons but they made no difference.

"_Stop the ride please!" _The blonde, pretty girl screamed. The friend with the curly, blonde hair was no longer on the ride. The brunette friend was gripping on to her safety holder with all her strength.

The ride stopped. The crowd gasped.

The ride started to raise very, very slowly. The girls were struggling to hold on. It raised higher and higher and, finally reached the top of the tower. The girls were crying. The crowd was screaming at the ride attendant who ran out of his box, cowering.

Then the ride fell down the tower. With a flick, a twist and a blur the brunette swung out of her seat and shot up in the air. The ride wasn't going to stop. The pretty, blonde girl held on for her life and screamed her last scream as the ride collided with the solid, cold ground with a deafening smash.

She opened her eyes.

She was sweating.

The ride hadn't started.

I was gasping for air. I'd just had another vision! Julie was yelling up at the girls. The brunette was flapping her hand. The chewing gum was sticking her fingers together. It hadn't happened yet. I opened my mouth to scream once more, but the blonde, pretty girl did it first.

She struggled with the safety belt and screamed louder than ever, as if she was having a fit. Everyone looked perplexed, including her friends. Julie looked at me quizzically.

"_-gonna crash, we're gonna die." _I heard her sob. I shook my head in utter disbelief. We'd shared the same vision … but she must have seen it from her own point of view.

The ride attendant rolled his eyes and slapped a button. The safety belts in the row in which the pretty blonde girl sat in flew upwards. She jumped out, shaking and sobbing. She pleaded to her friends.

"_Get off it! It's going to crash_!" The friends grimaced at her. She turned away and fled, crying hysterically. The belts came back down and the ride started. I turned around and watched as the pretty blonde girl stopped in her tracks, span around and screamed at the top of her lungs.

"_STOP THE FUCKING RIDE_!"

The ride flew upwards and, just as she and I had envisioned it, it clattered and clanked, and the belts flew upwards, and people fell.

The blonde girl ran to the side crowd and screamed upwards at her friends with grief. But something happened. Something that sickened me as I realised what was about to happen to the side crowd. I screamed over at her and she noticed me.

"GET AWAY FROM THERE! RUN!" I shouted at her.

She looked at me with her pretty, but tearful eyes and the large, metal piece of the ride cracked off and flew in her direction. It happened too soon that she couldn't move in time. It flattened her in one swift movement and dragged her crumpled body with it across the other people in the side crowd, leaving behind a scraped carpet of blood.

Julie swore. I gasped. The ride stopped.

It didn't move. It was still. Something had happened.

I looked over at the ride to see the brunette girl slip out of her seat and run screaming and crying hysterically towards the crowd. She tripped and hit the floor, swearing and crying.

Death had skipped her.

The crowd screamed for ages. People were tended too by the numerous ambulances that came, and the remainders of the bodies were bagged up and taken away. The brunette girl was being seen too. I didn't approach her.

Julie held my hand. She was shaking uncontrollably.

"Let's go," she said.

She led me to the car and I sat down. My throat was burning.

"Death skipped her," I whispered. Julie nodded.

"It happens. But it'll find its way back. It always does." She said.

"She had a vision." I said. "The blonde girl had a vision."

"I know," Julie said.

"We had the same vision," I said. Julie looked at me abruptly.

"What?" She looked worried.

"Me and the girl, we saw the same thing." I said, looking at her concerned.

Her expression softened.

"Oh … how was that possible?" She asked. I shrugged.

"But it doesn't make any difference. She died." I choked.

"It couldn't have been helped. She was stubborn-"

"-so that makes her unworthy to _live?_" I snapped.

"No!" Julie breathed, "_God_, no. I didn't mean _that_! I meant she'd never had listened to reason. Her stubbornness would have gotten the better of her."

There was a painful silence as I tried to absorb all that had happened.

"Is it my fault?" I asked, "Is it my fault these people are dying? Every time I'm there, they die!"

"No, Sam don't think like that! It happens whether or not you're there! Death _happens._ It's an everyday _thing_. It's just happening now, more often, because …" she stopped, "… we need to fight this. You're not stubborn, you have an open mind! You can beat this!" She was crying.

I hugged her and cried. I was so scared.

"Thank you," I whispered to her, "_Thank you_."

She let go of me and, somewhat, threw me away from her. She cried into the steering wheel. I looked at her, taken aback.

"What?-"

"_I can't believe I'm doing this to you." _She sobbed. I wiped my eyes.

"It's not your fault-"

"But it _is."_ She snivelled, "_I've been lying to you all this time."_ A shuddering silence. She took a breath.

"What?" I breathed.

"The bridge – all the deaths – the premonition. You weren't the only one." Her eyes glittered at me. Her face was tear strewn and her arm was quivering on the steering wheel. "I was in that car, when the pole went through the window. But I didn't die. I jumped out of the way in my seat. It caught my leg. It was shattered. I stayed in my car and eventually crawled out. I saw you get killed. I watched it all happen, too. I saw Brian die after your sister. When he fell he latched onto a pole sticking out of one of the construction lorries. When your sister fell, the pole fell out of its grip and Brian fell with it. The coffee machine explosion at the café was meant to kill your sister first, but I prevented her death. I just couldn't help Brian." I felt numb. I stared at her in complete disbelief. I found my voice.

"So that's how you knew for sure it wasn't you or my sister next." I said.

Julie nodded.

"Why didn't you try to stop the bridge accident like I did?" I said. Julie snivelled and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

"I wanted to. I was frightened. I'd been through it two times already but from Wendy's visions. Now it was my turn. I felt terrified to think my fate was the same as hers. I couldn't act fast enough. I saw you running and I watched as you stopped us from getting caught in it all. I felt responsible for not moving first. I needed to help you. That's how I felt."

I hated the silence that fell.

I hated the car I sat in.

I hated the pitiful girl who sat beside me.

She had left me to think I was responsible for the bridge accident.

She was going to let me fall into a pit of confusion and tragedy.

"I'm here to help you, Sam. Please don't hate me." She said as if she'd read my mind. I looked deep into her eyes and felt warmth that I hadn't felt for a long time. A comfort that had long been lost for so long. The word "sorry" wasn't enough. But she was in the same position as me, after all. She'd been through it all two times before, and I couldn't imagine how traumatising that could have been. I gave a weak smile and nodded, and held her trembling hand for comfort.

She gave a weak, teary smile and snivelled.

That one moment in time I felt a happiness I could never had believed would have occurred. I wasn't alone anymore. I had someone to help and understand me until the very end.

She turned the keys and the car started and reversed. As she drove I realised something that killed the warmth and happiness immediately. Something that frightened me to the extent of letting out a small gasp as cold, frozen hands seemingly grasped my throat.

I was next.


	5. Chapter 5: Honour May

Honour May

"Stop the car."

"What?"

"Julie. _Stop the car now!"_

Julie rolled the wheel around and drew the car up on the side of the main road. Vehicles were speeding by without a care. Drivers were carelessly chatting away on cell phones or fiddling with radio tuners. Everything seemed to pass by in slow motion. A rush of panic hit me and my heart raced ten fold.

"We need to find somewhere safe-we need to get out of here."

"What's wrong Sam?" Julie was looking concerned and confused. She hadn't realised yet.

_Get out of the car. Get out of the car. Get out of the car._

I grabbed the door handle and wrenched it open and pushed the door open, then leaned out. As I did, a cold shiver penetrated my spine. Julie screamed. I felt a real hand grab my shirt and pull me backwards. There was a rush of wind and an enormous, metallic _bang_ as a large lorry slammed into the door, and through the air of which I was once standing.

The car swerved out a bit so that the back was in the road. I sat sprawled awkwardly in the passengers seat. I could hear Julie panting.

"_Oh God it's you."_ She said. As her realisation hit, I felt a painful serge to get out of the car once more. But these thoughts didn't feel like my own. They felt like an instinct that didn't belong to me. Like a devil on my shoulder. There was a blast of another large vehicles horn. Julies scream couldn't have been heard as both our eyes caught sight of the enormous coach heading right for us without slowing down. The distressed driver was slamming his hand down on the horn. Julie kicked her door open as I turned and made a leap out of mine. We both hit the road just as the coach collided with the car and dragged it away.

My elbow felt raw.

I looked up and saw a car heading right for me, the driver looking horror stricken. I rolled out of the way and felt its narrow miss brush by me. There was another blast from a horn as a car came towards me, only this one turned and the driver was trying to stop.

The car was facing its side and was skidding towards me. It nearly stopped before a bigger car behind it collided with it and pushed it forwards. I jumped out of the way with a yell and landed on the very side of the road next to a horror stricken Julie.

I turned to see both cars come to a halt. The front passenger of the car in the front was screaming. A lady. She jumped out of the car followed by two crying children. The faces were so familiar.

The driver of the car that had forced them forwards got out. Julie gave a small cry.

"_Him." _She uttered. The lady from the other car grabbed her children and gave a scream of horror as she faced the driver. Shards of glass had pierced his barely visible face. The driver of her car, the father of her children, was dead.

"Oh my god." The man from the other cry gasped. "What the fuck-"

A car sped forward and hit him. His body flayed and rolled into the air like a mannequin from a store-it's expressionless face still and dead, its limbs loose and broken.

The lady screamed louder and Julie swore.

He hit the floor.

I was trembling. The cold feeling inside of me remained, but it didn't feel as sharp. It was a coldness heading in the direction of the lady and her children. I didn't know what to say, or do. I heard a spark. Before I could merely blink the car of the run-over man exploded. The bonnet was thrown into the air by a heavy force and flames erupted in every direction. I was thrown backwards by the force and I collided with the road barrier. I heard Julie hit the floor.

When I looked up I saw something that sickened me.

Three more names had been removed from deaths list. The mother gasping her last under the car that was once hers, her children-dead.

Kerry's hug was strong and meaningful. Her tears dampened the top of my head as she kissed it.

"_I'm so glad you're safe," _she wheeped. Aunt Lily was tending to Julie's wounds in the kitchen. The police officer at the door nodded his final farewell and left.

Julie and I had been escorted back, safely, in a police car.

I wasn't crying. I was too shocked and confused. I wasn't dead, and yet I should have been. I knew for a definite fact that it was my turn to die, and yet here I was, safe in my sister's arms. Aunt Lily came into the hallway and closed the front door, then led me into the kitchen.

Julie was looking rough. Her clothes had grass stains and blood in them, and her face was scratched and bruised. She had a bandage wrapped over her hand.

Aunt Lily sat me down and started to dab my face with a lotion that stung in certain places. I kept wincing.

"Why were you with my brother?" Kerry asked, looking at Julie. Before Julie could answer Kerry said, "Everywhere you are, dangerous things happen. You were at the café, and now at the motorway-"

"She saved my life, Kerry." I said.

"What happened to your brother at the drawbridge was no coincidence." Julie spoke. Kerry looked taken aback. "You might not like what I'm going to say, but the sad thing is it's true." She wasn't speaking harshly. She was speaking softly, and honestly as she continued, "Your brother had a premonition. You can't deny this because you _witnessed_ it. These things have happened before to other people in different situations. The thing is …" Julie swallowed. Aunt Lily had stopped dabbing and was looking at Julie; "The thing is … your brother saved peoples lives that day. But that's not a good thing, because the lives that were saved weren't _supposed _to be saved."

"Which means?" Kerry choked. It was as if she already knew what was coming next. Her eyes were already filling with tears.

"Which means the survivors are in danger. They're all going to die and we need to stop them. But we don't know who they are because there were so many and we don't know how to stop them. There's no proper way it's just … luck."

"So you're saying I'm going to die?" Kerry said. Aunt Lily took her arm consolingly, and shook her head.

"You're death has been skipped." I said. "Julie saved you at the café."

Kerry broke down and cried.

It took hours to explain everything, from Julie's first experiences of the premonitions, to the vision she and I shared, and to the present moment. When we finished, Kerry looked dumbfounded and Aunt Lily looked disgusted. But they both accepted what we'd said.

"-after what happened at the drawbridge," Kerry snivelled, "I think anything is possible." I smiled at her.

"And you say the people that died today were involved in the drawbridge?" Aunt Lily asked. Julie nodded.

"All six." She said.

"Heaven's." Aunt Lily gasped. "When will it all stop?"

"I don't know. I wish there was someone with the answers-"

As Julie spoke my head felt numb and I came over faint. My vision fogged over and I saw before me a kind looking face, with dark eyes and skin, who was speaking words which somehow made sense to me, even though I had no idea what he was talking about. Suddenly I was outside a very large building, like a hotel and I could see the name "Honour May Hotel," on a plaque at the front. A short, older lady with dark skin and curly dark hair walked into the building. She looked around as the glass door was closing and as our eyes met the vision ended.

"What did you see?"

Kerry was standing behind Julie, who was kneeling down beside me as I leaned up. I was on the kitchen floor.

"People." Was my reply, "I think they might have answers."

"What people? Answers to what?" Kerry stammered.

"Where are they, did you see?" Julie asked, ignoring Kerry.

"A hotel … I can see its name … Honour May Hotel. A big building-"

Aunt Lily gasped. She was holding her heaving chest.

"Honour May Hotel is where Carrie lives, my friend from the gardening club I used to go to. She used to live down here but she moved." Aunt Lily said.

"Are you sure?" Julie said, getting up off the floor with me. Aunt Lily nodded.

"Yeah, I've visited her a good few times, I can tell you where to find the building."

"I'm coming." Kerry said suddenly. Everyone stopped in their tracks. "Don't tell me I can't; you're my younger brother for God sakes. I'm not letting you go through this alone." Julie ignored this.

Within moments, I was sitting in the passenger seat of Kerry's car with a map in my hands and Julie in the back seat. The engine rumbled and off we went, following the pencilled mark Aunt Lily had drawn. She waved us off with teary eyes.

We tried to avoid main roads, but eventually had no choice. Inside I felt no signs towards any upcoming deaths, no nearing danger, just a deep determination to find these people and get some answers.

We arrived at the nearest town and came to a slow halt outside the familiar building with the large plaque, which read: "_Honour May Hotel." _I got out of the car and walked in through the glass front doors, closely followed by Julie and Kerry.

Inside was an open reception. The floor was carpeted in a soft, cream carpet with a large, dark "H" emblazoned on it. The reception desk was made of a fine dark wood and behind it sat a lady wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a stony expression. There was one step leading up towards two lift doors.

I approached the desk.

"Excuse me-"

The lady behind the desk looked up at me through her glasses and pursed her lips. She blinked and looked at the two women standing beside me. She seemed not to have noticed us enter the building.

"Can I help you?" she asked in a soft, English accent.

"Yeah, we're looking for a lady named Carrie." I said, "Carrie Rose."

"_She's not the one you're looking for."_ Said a voice from behind us. We all turned to see a dark skinned, dark haired lady walk from a lift. The doors swivelled to a close behind her.

She wore a long, silky dress, which was patterned with swirls and flowers coloured white and blue. Her wrists were decorated with shining bands of gold and silver, which matched her earrings. This was the lady from my vision.

"Mrs May!" The reception lady gasped, "You're appointment-"

"-can wait." The lady said. "I need to talk to these people, first." She ushered us forwards and tapped the up button on the lift. I approached her. Her dark eyes looked deep into mine for a second and I felt as if I could hear her thinking. I broke the stare as the elevator doors opened. We all bundled into the lift, Kerry and Julie looking unsure, and the lady tapped the button number eight. The doors closed and the lift started to rise.

Nobody spoke for a while.

The lift came to a halt and the doors opened onto a long hallway with red carpet and polished walls. We walked down it, following the lady, and approached a door, which she opened. We all walked in.

This room was quite grand. Its décor was fine and the surfaces were smartly polished. The room smelled of rich wine.

"Make yourself comfortable." The lady said. "Oh, an introduction. I'm Ms Honour May." I looked at her for a second.

"You? This is your hotel?" Julie asked.

"Oh, no, no, no. This is my mother's hotel. I'm Honour Rose-May. She was just Honour May. It's confusing, I know-sit." Ms May said. We all sat at a round, polished table. She observed me for a second, then rummaged in a drawer behind her for a pair of glasses. She opened the glasses arms and balanced the glasses firmly on her nose. She looked back into my eyes.

"You've seen quite a lot, haven't you … Sam." She said.

"How d'you know-"

"I know quite a lot." Ms May interrupted Kerry. "I know what you've seen, Sam. You've been through quite an ordeal. And you're looking for answers." She gave a small smile, then looked over at Julie. The smile faded.

"Would you like a drink?" she asked her.

"Me? Oh, no thanks." Julie said.

"I don't know why," I started immediately, "But something drew me to this building. To you." Ms May took her glance from Julie back to me.

"Something, indeed." She said, and she turned around and leaned on the counter. "But what is this something? It's not instinct, that's too obvious. Emotion? Determination?"

"I … I don't know." I said.

"I'll tell you what it is." Ms May said, "It's Procrastination." She gave a small laugh. "You feel the need to be out there saving people, but you just want your life back – so you've come to me to get that. The truth is I can't change anything. If anything, you might leave here today with more questions. I can't give you instructions on how to get through this ordeal you've gotten yourself in, but I can give you a few dusty tips."

"So, you can't tell us why this is happening to Sam?" Kerry said.

"Darling, there is no reason – it just _has_." Ms May said. "You have things that happen because they happen, and things that happen for a reason. This is one of those things that just happen! For example, the reason you win the lottery is because you bought a ticket – but it just so _happens _that you picked the winning numbers. D'you get me?"

"Not really," I replied.

"How can we beat this?" Julie said. There was a small silence and Ms May looked at Julie.

"I don't know if there is any beating this. Death is a complex thing. It can happen because it happens, and it can happen for a reason. But if I were in your position, I'd be thinking more on the lines of '_fight fire with fire.'"_

"Pardon?" said Kerry.

"Death can only bend what you can not control." She said, looking at Julie.

"So …" I started, and her glance came to me, "Could you tell me what I have to do?" Ms May looked quizzical for a second, then smiled.

"What's last is the end."

"I don't understand"

"What's last is the end." She repeated, "It's quite self explanatory. It might make sense soon." She looked at Julie once more.

"And another thing. This vision I had … before I saw you. I saw a man." I said. Without any further words Ms May said;

"My son." She said, "He works at the morgue and is very gifted. Very optimistic." She smiled.

Julie stood up.

"I think we should leave, now." She said.

"That you should. And don't worry about what's to come, it'll all be over soon." Ms May said kindly. The girls left and I was last to the door when Ms May placed her hand on my shoulder.

I turned around.

"Listen carefully, dear." She said. I nodded. "You'd do best to listen to that young lady."

"Which one?" I asked.

"Julie."


	6. Chapter 6: The Scattered Pieces Joining

The Scattered Pieces Joining

The car rumbled gently down the road. The radio was on and a man spoke in a boring voice that dis interested me. My eyes were concentrating on the window. I was deep in thought. I caught sight of Kerry in the back seat through the side mirror. She too was deep in thought.

The radio crackled for a second and broke everyone trail of thought. A female voice now spoke in an alert tone that captured my interest.

"_A family of four have perished in an unfortunate road accident," _she said, "_The car was hit by a larger, passing vehicle – killing the driver instantly. The exiting passengers were impaled by their own car as a second vehicle collided with the side." _Julie's hand reached out for the off button, but I stopped her.

"No, listen." I said.

"… _it is said that one body was noticed to be the mother of a former Clear Rivers, a student known to have survived the tragedy of flight one-eighty ten years ago. Clear died in an explosion two years later…"_

"Please turn it off, I don't want to hear anymore." Kerry said. Julie clicked the 'off' button. The car fell silent and I fell back into more deep thought. That name seemed familiar to me. I'd never heard of it in my life, and yet it seemed so familiar, almost like a long lost friend. I could practically hear her voice in my head as if I'd only spoken to her today. But I hadn't.

The car turned left and continued down a road.

"Before all of this happened," I said, "Did you ever feel like death was chasing after you?" Julie glanced at me, then looked back at the road. "I mean, like it was following you … stalking you … waiting to attack."

"What are you talking about, Sam?" Kerry asked in the back seat.

"I don't know. It's just that … I feel like death has always been trying to get to me … but other people have been in the way. Look at dad-"

"Please no." Kerry said.

"No, _listen_ to me Kerry." I snapped. "If I hadn't seen that boy in town get killed, I wouldn't have been in hospital."

"What boy?" Julie asked.

"I was on my bike going to town, for Kerry." I said, "This boy was walking along with this girl under a construction building when this _huge _brick fell out of nowhere and smacked him right in the head. I fell of my bike. This car nearly hit me and I got whiplash."

"That's awful" said Julie.

"It was the first time I'd ever been to hospital before for some injury, so I guess I was making a big deal out of it. I got so wound up I was making myself ill. People were calling it trauma from what I'd seen." I admitted shamefully, "So dad stayed with me a lot. He took me home in the car after a week, and when he did he went to work; late. He ended up in a huge road accident, which disabled him.

If he hadn't waited with me and made my mom stay, he'd have probably been killed."

The car fell silent once more.

We were approaching a traffic light, which turned red.

A car slowed down beside us. The driver was an older man, and the passenger was a young girl with short brown hair. In the side mirror of our car I saw, behind us, a young man shuffling with a red hat that was labelled with some company logo. It looked like a coffee mug.

Beside us was a tall building covered in scaffolding and workers. One was smoking a cigarette. He flicked it and it tumbled down onto the floor.

"Something doesn't feel right …" I said. Julie looked at alert. Then she saw the passenger in the car next to us and gave a loud gasp.

"_HIGH DIVE." _She yelled. I spun my glance to the girl passenger who was, now, listening to her MP3. I noticed her, now. She was the survivor of the High Dive ride.

Julie's eyes were darting around. They widened at the sight of the Café worker who had witnessed Brian's death. Kerry seemed alert but confused at what was happening.

"Get out of the car, now." I said. Julie was first out, I was second. Kerry climbed over to her door and started fumbling with the lock. She climbed out. The people in the other cars saw us and looked completely bewildered.

I ran around the car and onto the pavement as the traffic light turned orange, then green. The car next to us with the high dive survivor crept forwards and started gathering speed.

Then I saw it. A thin, black line of liquid trailing from the car. A sharp looking blade of metal must have fallen from the scaffolding earlier, and the car must have driven over it. It was leaking oil.

The cigarette blew and rolled into the oil and a flame grew. It followed the trail and caught up with the car in no time.

"GET OUT OF THE CAR!" I shouted at them. The car was slowing down. Maybe the driver had noticed the sudden decrease in fuel. The girl in the passenger seat saw me flaying my arms and shouting and her eyes widened at the sight of the thin flame heading in her direction.

She un-buckled her belt and climbed quickly out of the car as the flames caught hold of the car. In moments the car was alight.

"Dad!" The girl screamed at the driver. She leaned back in and started fumbling with his caught belt.

The driver in the car behind ours looked furious and was swearing at us and slamming his fist down on the horn. He couldn't see what was happening.

The girl had successfully un-buckled her fathers belt, and the car was catching fire heavier. It was surely going to happen.

I ran over to help, ignoring the enormous sense of danger. Julie and Kerry followed.

The driver couldn't open his door, it was jammed shut. We all helped him climb over the gear stick and into the passenger seat. The heat from the flames was making me sweat. It was about time ….

The car behind our car was turning, trying to go around.

"Hurry up dad!" the girl screamed, and her father climbed out of the car. We pulled him as we ran from the burning car. The café worker stopped turning his car as he realised what was happening. Then the car exploded.

With a deafening _BANG _the flames erupted. Workers tripped and dropped their tools and swore aloud. Flames pushed out into the morning air with shards of glass and metal. An enormous force pushed us all over.

There was a sound like a metallic scrape and a whip as the fallen blade of metal that had caused the leak in the car flew into the air. It spun and flew into the windshield of the café workers car.

There was a stunned pause.

The flames were crackling merrily as we all stood and looked over at the café workers car. There was no one in the car. The driver seat was empty, except for the large, sharp blade of metal protruding from the head of the seat.

The café worker got up. He had ducked down in the car. He saw the blade and jolted forwards with surprise.

Something felt terribly wrong.

There was a loud creak and a piece of scaffolding dropped. It collided with the café workers car bonnet along with numerous tools and the airbag threw his head backwards. With a grinding slice the blade decapitated him and his head rolled back into the back seat of the car behind him.

He was dead.

The numerous ambulances helped greatly with the cuts from the explosion. It wasn't long before I was bandaged and clean. Kerry was shaking uncontrollably. The event had, no doubt, reminded her of the death of her fiancé. She held back her tears with extreme effort.

The girl with the short brown hair approached me. She looked at me for a second.

"Why are you here?" she asked. I looked at her.

"What do you mean?" I replied.

"Every time I see you, strange things happen." She said.

"Well those things will happen regardless of whether or not he's around you." Said Julie as she approached us. "So don't go blaming his presence for what's happened."

The girl looked at me for another moment with what almost looked like pity.

"You helped save me and my father." She said. "Thank you." Then she turned around and walked into the back of an ambulance van with her father, who was speaking to a paramedic.

"Are you ok, Sam?" Julie asked. I nodded slowly.

"Is this all just a coincidence?" I asked Julie. "That we all ended up in the same place? Or is it a design … or fate." Julie looked down at the floor then back up at me.

"I don't know. Things like this will always happen." She said.

"There has to be a way to stop it." I whispered to myself. Julie walked away.

_I was sitting in a chair in a large, open room. There were numerous people sitting in different chairs around me. Two girls spoke to me and I answered, then got up from my chair and walked down the isle towards a grimacing boy. A friend?_

_I sat down beside him. I caught sight of my reflection in the darkened window next to me. I wasn't Sam. I was Alex. That face was older than Sam's. _

_I looked around to see that I was sitting in an aeroplane. Something felt incredibly wrong. The plane was, now, empty. I looked back in the window. I was Sam again._

_I looked to my left to see Alex sitting there. He looked extraordinary pale, and his eyes had large, dark circles around them. A large amount of his hair was dyed a deep burgundy, and a trickle of blood had dried down one side of his face. He looked at me without any visible expression._

"_You scared?" He said. I nodded. "Well, you'd be an idiot not to be. Death really likes to mess with your head. It sure as hell messed with mine." I looked at the dent in his head. I knew him._

_I gasped._

"_Realised have you? Yeah it's me." He said. "Sorry you had to see it. I know you were only a little boy. It doesn't matter what age you are, or what mental state you're in, though. Death will always come to you. I learned that when I boarded this plane." _

_I wanted to speak, but I had no voice._

"_You could say that I'm probably the reason you're in the situation you're in now. You witnessing my death must have caused some fuck-up in deaths path. Probably because it could have been you instead of me. I don't know. I don't have much time. Just listen carefully. Don't be afraid. Fight against it and don't be afraid to step back and let certain things happen. Just because you had the vision, doesn't mean you're responsible for keeping everyone alive. It's an Armageddon, dude. Death's just tying up those lose ends."_

_Alex vanished and was replaced by another boy._

_A friend?_

_Suddenly the whole plane shook and erupted. There was an explosion and screams and burning fire._

_I couldn't scream._

_All of a sudden I found myself sitting in a car with my hands held tightly on the steering wheel. A girl sat beside me. The sight of her would have made me scream if I had a voice._

_She was pale. Paler than Alex was. But, even worse. She had thick, deep red lines etched across her whole body and stitches weaving in and out. She was sewn up._

_She looked at me consolingly._

"_Don't look so frightened. I'm not going to hurt you." She said._

_I nodded and looked out at the road. It was vast and endless. There was no chance of any collisions or off-road paths. It was as if the world was one big road._

"_Listen to me, Sam. You've got to learn to listen more and think less. Everything is a lot more literal than you think. And everything happens for a reason. Let what's to happen happen. Remember what Honour May said. It all made a lot more sense than you might think."_

_Immediately she vanished and a lorry appeared right in front of the car blasting its horn. I gasped. With no time to scream, the vehicles collided heavily and I shot forwards in an eruption of metal, which suddenly became a train._

_I hit the cold floor._

_When I got up I noticed that I was on, not just any train, but an underground train. I felt like I knew what was to come._

_I thought I was looking at Julie for a second, sitting in one of the many seats on each side of the inside of the moving underground train. She turned to look at me with dark, sad eyes and gave a sad smile._

"_Wendy." I said. My voice was back!_

"_You must be Sam." She said. Her hair was jet-black and thinning, as if it had been torn out. On her chin she had dried blood, which had come from her mouth. She looked as if an electric cable had hit her._

"_You know my sister, Julie." She said. "If only she knew how much I miss her. She was a good sister when she wanted to be." She laughed._

"_She misses you too." I said._

_Wendy looked at me with her saddened eyes._

"_You need to find a person called Ronan Mayhew." Wendy said as if forced to. "Ronan Mayhew? Why?" I asked._

"_Just do as I say. He's the one that'll lead you to the closing of it all. Once you've found him, it'll all be over. I promise." She shuddered a little bit, and a small ghost of a tear dripped down her cheek._

"_What's wrong?" I asked. She wouldn't reply. "Wendy, What's wrong?" I demanded. She screamed out loud._

"_HELP HER!"_

_Her scream deafened me and the train seemed to explode in enormous flames. Wendy was engulfed in them. I screamed out for her and put my hand out._

"WENDY!" I screamed. I jumped up.

I was covered in freezing cold sweat and was lying, tangled, in my bed blankets. My head was aching with the memory of the dream I'd fallen into. Those faces and those voices.

I rubbed my eyes and looked over at the window. Aunt Lily's curtains were blowing in the small breeze that came from the open window. I leaned my back on the wall. It was cold and gave me goose bumps.

The landing light clicked on and someone approached my door. I heard them listen in to hear if I was ok. The door opened and I saw Kerry look in. She saw I was awake. She opened the door wider.

"You ok, Sam?" She asked. I nodded.

"Nightmare." I said. And we left it at that.


	7. Chapter 7: A flash of Light

A flash of light

It was half past seven by the kitchen clock, and I sat in a daydream thinking about what I had seen that night. Julie entered the kitchen. Her eyes had dark shadows around them and she looked restless. I needn't have asked her whether or not she had gotten any sleep, but I did. She replied:

"Not much." And rubbed her tired eyes.

Dark, grey clouds were gathering in the sky around us. It was going to be a rainy day. Aunt Lily offered Julie a cup of coffee. She refused politely. I needed to tell Julie my dream. It was the only way I could try and make some sense out of it. I opened my mouth to speak -

"There's somewhere we need to go today." Julie said.

"What?" I said.

"There's someone I need to see. Something doesn't make sense and I need to try and figure this out." Julie said. I nodded, unsure.

"It's best that you and your sister stay here." She said. "It's too dangerous if you tag along. _Please!"_ I'd opened my mouth to argue back. There was a desperate look in Julie's eye. I didn't like the thought of her holding a secret from me, but it seemed it was of something that was out of my control. I let it go and nodded.

"Thank you." She said.

The car door closed and Julie turned the trembling keys and the engine came to life. As scared as she was, she knew she had to see him. His face had haunted her sleepless dreams all night. She knew where she wanted to go.

Within an hour of driving the needle started wavering dangerously close to "E" so Julie stopped at the nearest gas station. She filled the tank and continued driving.

Her eyes kept looking in the side mirror. Then the rear view mirror. Then the road. Then the side mirror once more. The rear view mirror. Wendy stared back at her sister from the rear view mirror.

Julie jumped.

She looked again. No one was there.

Her eyes darted back at the road and stayed there for the rest of the drive.

The rain started falling.

The building seemed to approach her, rather than she approach it. She stopped the car, turned off the engine, pocketed the keys and got out. She looked up at the sky and heard a breath of a storm rumble in the depths of the heavens. She ignored it and walked straight towards the enormous, stone buildings doors.

Beyond these doors was a vast open chamber made of stonewalls and wooden floors. There were two staircases following the walls upwards, and one large door set in between. The entrance door closed and a lady came out from a door upstairs.

She was taller than Julie and had an airy grace about her. Her hair was golden, and her eyes were green. She wore a pale blue dress and was carrying a clipboard. She approached Julie with a welcoming smile.

"Hello there ma'am." She said, kindly, "We weren't expecting any guests today."

"I'm here to see Kevin Fischer." Julie said.

"And you're name is?" The lady asked.

"Julie Christensen."

The lady looked at Julie sceptically. She looked down at the pin board and nodded, then wrote something down.

"Then you're early." She said. Julie looked at the lady confused.

"What?"

The lady put the pen down.

"Kevin wasn't expecting you for another two days." She said.

Julie nodded slowly.

"I need to see him now."

The lady nodded.

"Ok, follow me." She said with a smile in her voice and she turned and walked towards the door set in the middle of the staircases. They both walked down a hallway decorated in rich colours with doors made of polished wood built here and there in the walls. They came to a pair of doors and the lady allowed Julie in.

Julie walked into a second, vast chamber. It reminded her of a museum. Its ceiling was extremely high up, the walls were painted a rich white, the windows were tall and church-like and the floor was made of a checker patterned stone, coloured with different shades of red. There was a polished, wooden desk in the corner with a computer on it. Behind this desk was a large bookcase with many objects on it, including numerous ornaments. A plump lady stood up and came towards Julie with a sweet smile. She spoke in a gentle whisper with an accent that had clearly come from Texas.

"Hey there ma'am. Just a teensie procedure before you talk to a patient. You have to remove all sharp objects that might be on you, or anything that might come as a genuine danger or threat." She smiled.

"I don't wear anything like that." Julie replied.

"Good to know." The lady smiled, "Who are you here to see?" She asked.

"Kevin Fischer." Julie replied.

"Ah, Mr Fischer." The lady said with a note of disappointment in her voice, "Have you spoken to him recently?" She asked. Julie shook her head. "Well, it's best you know and understand that Mr Fischer is in a fragile state of mind. It would be wise to chose your words carefully around him." Julie blinked and nodded. "Ok then, follow me over here."

The lady turned around and Julie saw the chamber was littered with seats and tables here and there, similar to a prison visitors room, only softer and cleaner. She sat Julie down at a seat and told her to wait, then left the chamber for a moment.

She returned with a man Julie thought she'd never met. But she had. His hair was a lot longer than it was when she last saw him, and he had stubble on his face. His eyes had dark shadows under them and his face looked paler and thinner than ever. He wore what looked like a pair of white, cotton pyjamas and had nothing on his feet. His eyes met Julies and he broke into a wide smile. He opened his arms and Julie got up cautiously, looking at the lady next to Kevin. She nodded and Julie walked towards Kevin briskly and embraced him tightly. Her old friend.

"It's been so long." She said. She pulled out of the hug and they both walked towards the seats and sat down.

"You're early." He said, smiling with bright eyes.

"I know. I was told you were expecting me." Julie said. Kevin nodded.

"That's good, it means it's all going according to plan: you know?" Kevin said. Julie paused for a second and tilted her head.

"What plan?"

There was a pause.

"Oh, nothing. Don't worry about it. Now, tell me, why did you need to see me?" Kevin asked.

"I feel like I've been drawn to you for a while now." Julie replied, "I don't know why – I just do. I've been having dreams of you and I think you can help me."

Kevin shook his head, his smile fading.

"You can only help yourself and the others." Was his reply, "Yeah I know what's been happening. I can sense it, too. That little cold shiver and the sense that you're being stalked."

Julie nodded slowly.

"It's death, Julie. D'you know what that cold feeling is? Death. Every time that bastard is at work taking lives we feel it inside. Every shiver is one life being taken." He grinned and shook his head. There was a rumble in the air outside. A storm was forming. Kevin's eyes looked up at Julie, but his head was still down. "D'you hear that?" He whispered.

"Hear what?"

"_That" _

The rumble echoed through the chamber and a light at the far left corner of the chamber flickered.

"It's the winds of change." Kevin said. "It's an Armageddon out there."

"What are you talking about, Kevin?" Julie whispered back.

"Don't you realise there isn't a pattern anymore? There's no clear list it's just one big mess. It's not writing its list and checking it twice anymore, Julie. This isn't Saint Nick we're dealing with, it's death; and he's given up on lists. He's just grabbed them all and thrown them into the fire, and he's watching them burn. An Armageddon. He's clearing everything now; tying up every single loose end."

"I know." Julie said.

"So, _why_ did you come here, then?" Kevin asked again.

"I needed to see you-"

"-to see I was still alive?" He smiled. "Surprise!" Julie didn't smile back.

"What do I do, Kevin. No ones helping me anymore I feel like everyone's just left me in this situation to clean up after myself. Like _I've_ made the mistake. It's like death wanted me to get caught in this. I didn't even stop the premonition from happening, a boy did."

"Oh that shows how much death wants you. He's so determined to get you he'll sacrifice a whole new era of people and add more to his burning list. He really wants you, doesn't he?" Kevin giggled. "He's tried really hard to get me. But he failed."

"Kevin I'm scared. I don't know what to do." Julie sobbed.

"Control your emotions and follow the signs. That's been the message for ages, now. It's all you can do." Kevin said.

"But there _are_ no signs! I can't save anyone anymore. Like you said, it's an Armageddon, everyone is dying at random. There's no clear sign as to whose next anymore!" Julie said.

"There are, you can, it is, they are and there is." Kevin said, "You just need to listen more and stop ignoring the signs and avoiding your instinct, because believe it or not – it's the only conclusion."

"You _know?" _

"Of course I know. The boy doesn't. The boy you're with. But he'll find out soon enough."

"I can't, Kevin. I can't do it."

"Well it's the only way." Kevin said. "You know what to do, and the boy has the final answer for you. There's nothing more I can do or say except follow the signs and _your_ instinct."

A flash of lightning lit up the whole room and an eruption of thunder clashed in the air. Julie and Kevin jumped and the lady behind the desk squealed.

"No need to worry," She called over to Julie and Kevin, "Everything is fine it's just a passing storm-" A second clash of thunder and lightning came. Kevin's eyes lit up as he watched a thin bolt of lightning dance freely outside the window, teasing him. It vanished as fast as it came.

Kevin shook his head and stood up. He stormed over to the lady behind the desk.

"I want to go back to my room." He ordered. The lady looked up.

"I beg your pardon? Have you finished?" The lady asked looking flustered. She was sitting at her desk facing the computer screen.

"_Now. Come on." _Kevin walked around the desk and behind the lady to pull her up in his panic and fear to get out of the chamber. There was a sudden enormous eruption of thunder and lightning. Julie swung up from her seat as her body froze from head to toe. Death was in the chamber. There was a noise like an electrical buzz as a bolt of lightning struck a large mast outside and a trail of sharp electricity surged through the wires.

The lights flickered ecstatically and the computer lit up to a blinding extent. The lady shielded her eyes while Kevin squinted and grimaced. The screen on the computer cracked and burst and the glass shattered and shot forwards into his face and his shielding hand. Julie screamed. The lady swivelled in her hair backwards, pushing Kevin backwards, who collided with the bookcase containing the numerous ornaments. They all shook as he fell into it cowering. Kevin flayed and screamed as blood ran down his face. An ornament of a tall lady with her hand in the air, in a ballet pose, at his head level fell downwards and Kevin threw his head backwards into it.

The lights flickered once more then stopped. The thunder rumbled once more then stopped. Julie was breathing fast and the lady had fallen on the floor and was, now, cowering. Kevin choked and twitched as his desperate eyes cried their last. The ornament had impaled him. A trickle of blood left his mouth and he lost his balance and stumbled to the floor, lifeless.

Julie screamed a piercing, pain-filled scream. She fell on her knees crying painfully and shivered. Now she felt she was more alone than ever.

The news that Kevin was dead shocked me. It made one possibility certain; that Julie's death was now possible and approaching fast. She was sitting in the kitchen, crying into a cup of tea with Aunt Lily and Kerry comforting her.

Over her tears and sobbing she had told us everything Kevin had said. Then she looked at me with teary eyes and wiped her nose on her sleeve.

"He said you knew something that could help me." She said.

"Me?" I asked, dumbfounded. Julie nodded. I was sitting on the counter near the window. I thought long and hard about what I could possibly know that Julie didn't. I knew I'd had that dream, but I wasn't going to scare her with that. It was, after all, nothing more than a dream. But, then, there was that message from Julie's sister. A name.

"Sam?" Kerry called over to me. I came out of my daze and looked up to face Julie.

"There's a name you need to know." I said.

Everyone turned to face me. Aunt Lily with her rosy complexion, Kerry with her tired eyes and Julie with her tear stained face. I spoke:

"Ronan Mayhew."


	8. Chapter 8: The Final Destination

The Final Destination

"Where did you get that name from, Sam?" Kerry asked. It seemed to be the question on everyone's mind. I looked at Julie with the hope that she would listen to me and believe me as I spoke.

"Wendy told me." I said. Julie gave a short, shuddering gasp and covered her mouth with her hand. Kerry frowned and looked from me to Julie, while Aunt Lily rested her hand on Julie's shoulder in a comforting manner – her expression confused. "I'm not going insane and I'm not delusional. So don't think that. But, last night I had this dream – but it wasn't a dream it felt real. I was talking to these people who I'd never met before, and I came across Wendy. She told me the name Ronan Mayhew and she told me to help you." Julie nodded, tears running down her face. "You believe me?" I said.

"I saw her too." Julie sobbed, sniffing and rubbing her nose. "In the car."

"Who is Wendy?" Kerry asked.

"My sister." Julie replied. "She died not so long back in an accident at an underground railway." The kitchen fell silent, "We'd all been through a bit of a traumatic time. Wendy had a premonition, just like Sam had, only it involved a rollercoaster and it killed a number of our old school friends. She stopped the premonition from coming true and saved everyone's life; then one by one they all started to get killed in freakish ways. It came to a point where it was my turn, but my death was prevented, along with Kevin's and Wendy's. We were all safe. Then nearly a year later, we found each other again at an underground railway and Wendy had another premonition, only this time it involved everyone dying on the underground train. We prevented it from happening. All the commotion happening in our carriage caught some people's attention in another carriage and someone pulled the emergency break lever. The train stopped and everyone got off. We were walking down the tunnel and Wendy was telling us she'd seen something that triggered it. She saw little sings that she could ignore but then one sign stayed in her mind, the numbers one-eighty in a station mirror reflecting the train number: zero eight one. Once she told us that something happened … a loose cable fell down at us and Wendy was caught." Julie choked, and then sipped her tea. "The sight of her traumatised Kevin. He threw himself into the town asylum and I just sat on my own in my old apartment … waiting."

There was a silence.

"I'm sorry." Kerry said.

"There's nothing to be sorry about. It couldn't have been prevented; it was always going to happen. I don't know why we didn't see it before it hit us, but the fact was there. Because the number was reflected the deaths occurred in reverse order …"

"But you've skipped death now, we all have." I said. "You faced it _again _and you've beaten it."

"I haven't." Julie said, "No one has. And that's why I think Wendy came to you. I think this Ronan person can help us." There was a note of hope in her voice. I nodded.

"You know," Aunt Lily piped up, "I can't help but think that name rings a bell." She clicked her fingers impatiently, "I've heard it before. I know it. Mayhew … Ronan Mayhew."

"Well there can't be just one Ronan Mayhew on planet earth, it's probably someone on television." Kerry said.

Then it happened.

My entire body felt as if it had shut down. My arms became soft and limp and my spine seemed to soften as I slumped down and hit the kitchen floor, my sight fogging over.

The vision wasn't clear; it was blurry as if I was looking through water. There was a man looking down at me. I couldn't see his face or hear his voice. I thought I could smell fire and … was that a scream? I felt rushed and out of breath like I had been running and I could feel small, sharp amounts of pain hitting parts of my body.

The vision ended.

"-SAM!" Kerry was kneeling over me looking horror stricken. I got up and rubbed my head as a sharp pain dug into me. I was breathing heavily and was shaking.

"What did you see?" Julie asked. I shook my head and closed my eyes, trying to see the face or make sense of what I had just seen.

"I don't know it wasn't clear at all. But I was looking at a person or … I could see someone. There was fire, I could smell fire and someone screamed."

"Who?"

"I don't know, I just told you. Nothing was clear."

"My sister wouldn't have told you that name if it meant nothing. The sooner we find this Ronan Mayhew, the sooner we can try and finish this all, now." Julie said, getting up and putting her coat on.

"Where are you going?" asked Aunt Lily.

"I'm getting in the car and I'm going to find this person. There's always a way." Julie said.

"But that's impossible, Julie." Kerry said, helping me up off the floor.

"I found your brother, didn't I?" Julie said with a note of finality in her voice. She turned and stormed out of the kitchen. I followed after her with Kerry right behind me. Aunt Lily called after us.

"Be safe!"

I sat in the back while the two girls sat in the front with Julie driving. The car sped forwards and I waved back at Aunt Lily who was waving frantically at the front door.

"Where are we going to look?" Kerry asked.

"We've got your brother with us, ask him." Julie said, turning the car around a sharp bend. Kerry looked at me quizzically.

"I don't know. I've never heard of a Ronan Mayhew before the other night." I replied. "Why don't we, just, go back to the places we've been to before?"

"Like that'll do any good." Kerry said, "We need to find that woman from the hotel: Honour May. She has answers I bet she could help us."

"She didn't help us before, she only gave us more questions." Julie cursed, as we swerved around another bend.

The sky outside was a deep, dark grey where night was resting on a stormy sky. I looked at my watch and saw it was gone half past five in the morning.

"I don't think we're going to find him." Kerry said after an hour of pure silence.

A sudden pain shot into my neck and I grabbed it and choked. My vision became stained with the colour red and I could see someone standing in front of me. I felt weak and weary and then, suddenly, my legs gave way and I fell backwards down a never-ending cliff. I could feel the darkness swallow me up and cold hands cradle me as my lungs shrivelled. The pain went.

I gasped. I hadn't passed out; I was leaning forwards breathing heavily with my hand grasping the driver seat tightly. Julie kept looking at the rear mirror to see me, and Kerry was staring at me.

"What's wrong, Sam? What did you see?" she asked.

I caught my breath.

"I think something's going to happen to me. Someone's going to kill me." I said. Kerry looked horror stricken whilst Julie looked stern with fear.

"Stop the car." Kerry ordered.

"Why?" Julie said.

"We don't know who this man is, what if he's going to kill us? What if that's what Sam is seeing, us being killed?"

"Don't be so stupid my sister would never-"

"-Your sister is _dead!_ Open your eyes, Julie. She's dead and gone! How do we not know that it was death taking the form of your sister, enticing us to find a person who is going to finish us off for it." Julie looked offended and hurt, but she didn't stop the car.

"If my brother is having visions of dying, again, I don't want to be the one leading him to it – now stop-this-car." Kerry said fiercely.

"No." Julie said finally.

"_Stop this damn car or I'll kill you myself." _Kerry screamed at Julie.

Julie ignored her.

Kerry screamed and grabbed the steering wheel and pulled it around. Julie swore out loud and I dived backwards to grasp hold of the nearest belt. The car swerved around dangerously and I felt the two tyres to the right lift off of the ground. The car screeched as it swerved around and came to a final halt on its side in the middle of a road.

Julie swore at Kerry who replied back in a groggy voice.

"_Fuck _you."

I could hear music beating in the distance. Two headlights came swerving around the corner as a car approached us. We were going to be saved. The music became louder. I looked out to see that the headlights were getting closer. They weren't going to stop. The driver couldn't see us! The car was speeding towards us.

"WE'RE GONNA CRASH!" I screamed. The car pelted towards us and at last minute did the drunken driver notice that an upturned car was right in front of him. He swerved his car and it collided heavily with ours.

There was an enormous metal crash and the roof of our car caved in slightly, knocking Kerry unconscious and causing lights to pop in my eyes. I heard a distant scream come from Julie as I wavered in and out of consciousness.

I could hear someone scream again. It was so familiar. I could smell fire and as I looked up I saw a face. But it wasn't the face that mattered as I realised the person was looking in horror at the ruins of another car burning. A car I had just pulled an old man out of, and his young, short haired, brunette daughter. There was a construction building with numerous construction workers watching in horror and I saw on the persons hat a name that plastered into my memory: "_Ronan Mayhew Constructions_."

I could feel burns on me. Someone was dragging _me_ away from a fire, a new fire. I heard someone scream. What was _happening? _There was a face above me that wasn't clear. I rubbed my eyes. The face became clear and the man spoke.

"Are you ok, kid?"

I coughed and nodded. I turned around. The car was on fire! I saw Julie screaming and swearing. What was wrong with her? I looked into the car and saw Kerry was there, her face expressionless and her eyes wide open.

No.

It couldn't be.

I tried to pull the man away from me but he held me back.

"GET OFF OF ME." I screamed and turned to face him. He was a construction worker. I'd seen him before in this very same place where the girl from the High Dive ride had encountered me a second time. We had returned here. I ignored the sign on his helmet that answered a question I'd been asking for the night. Nothing mattered anymore. I had to save Kerry. But it was too late. No, it couldn't be, she's fine. I ran towards the car, but someone kept pulling me back. I wanted to save her she was going to burn. She wasn't struggling to get out of the car. She wasn't moving at all. She could have been sleeping there had her eyes not been open. She was so limp.

My face was soaked in tears, and my vision kept blurring over. I rubbed the tears out of my eyes persistently and screamed at the burning car. I could see another car nearby with a man standing outside it cupping his mouth, his eyes wide with disbelief at what he had half-caused. His bonnet was crumpled.

The sun was starting to rise.

After some time the flames had died down and they pulled Kerry's dead shell from the car. She had a few burns on her and blood running down her face from the crash. She was dead.

I cried hysterically, shaking and sobbing on the floor at the sight of my dead sister. I'd never hear her voice again. She was gone. I felt a comforting arm hold me. Julie was here.

I closed my eyes tight and hugged her. I felt as if the world had ended. I cried hard into Julies shoulder and didn't stop until I had no more tears in me to cry. She sat me on the pavement.

"Ronan Mayhew." I said in a dry, tortured voice. Julie looked at me.

"What?"

"Ronan Mayhew." I pointed at a sign behind me, which was attached to large construction ladders on the building behind us. Julie looked at it, and then looked at me. Her eyes filled with water.

"What if your sister was right." She choked. "What if Wendy did bring us here to end it all …"

Then Julie's expression solidified. Her eyes looked blank and her face stern. She turned around and grabbed something I couldn't see and she stormed off. I watched her for a second then saw she'd entered the building. I got up and walked after her.

"Where are you going?"

She didn't reply. She stormed up a flight of stairs and was starting to run. I ran up after her. What had happened?

I heard her feet hitting the flight of stairs above me.

"Julie!" I called after her. I ran faster, skipping over numbers of steps and running up two at a time. My legs were aching when I reached the top. There was a big, cold metal door that I threw open. We were on the roof.

There were construction shafts built up around us and a number of toolboxes. There was no one else but me and Julie.

The wind was cold and stronger up on the rooftop.

My legs were trembling.

I looked at Julie. She was facing her back to me. She stood on the very edge of the building and looked down.

"What-are-you-doing?" I panted.

Julie turned to face me.

"I didn't want to do this now, Sam. I'm really sorry. I know you've just lost your sister but this is for the best." Julie said.

"You're going to kill me?" I said, my voice broke.

Julie didn't reply.

"_Death can only bend what you can not control." _Julie recited. "Honour May knew all along what the conclusion was. So many times I tried to end my life in that apartment of mine. Every gun I fired at myself died. The trigger wouldn't work. Death was bending the ability the gun had to kill me because I had no control over the mechanism."

"Julie … what are you talking about?"

"_What's last is the end. _Honour May said. I was the last person to die in the premonition. I am the ending to all of this. Earlier on, tonight, you didn't see yourself die in the vision you had in the car, Sam. It was me dying. It was always going to happen."

"No."

"Sam, just listen. Kevin was right, death would do anything to get to me. It even created the drawbridge incident just to get me back in its hands again. It'll always chase after me and it'll take down everyone who gets in its way. It's time I ended this."

"No, please Julie!" I cried. "I need you."

"Listen to me, Sam. I know what I'm saying. Everyone knew this was the outcome. It's always been there, right in our faces the whole time. I'm in control now. I'm going to end this."

Julie stepped back once.

"Death will always try and prevent an early death." Julie said, almost grinning. "But it won't prevent mine."

She stepped back again. I was frozen with horror.

Then something happened.

There was a flash of silver as Julie's hand moved and I saw what looked like a penknife. Before I could, even, realise what she was going to do, she had done it. She drew the blade out and slashed it across her throat. There was a gush of deep, crimson blood, which covered her face and shirt and stained the floor around her.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Julie's limp hand dropped the blade and it fell, along with her, off of the edge of the building. Her body was almost like a puppet that's strings had been cut. She tumbled in a spray of blood out of sight.

I heard a sudden, loud screech of wheels and a yell, then a thud.

I ran to the edge of the building to see a large, lorry had driven underneath Julie as she had fallen. The roof of the carriage it was dragging along was made like a giant tent that would have cushioned her fall.

She was lying sprawled out in a puddle of her own blood on the carriage. She was dead. And everything was over.

I stumbled and fell on the rooftop. My hands were covered in Julie's blood from the puddle on the floor around me.

I was crying harder than ever, but there was some other emotion surging through me. I didn't feel coldness, like I had before. I felt warmth, like comfort; as if warm arms were holding me close and a soothing voice was telling me that everything was going to be ok. The sunrise was a rich gold and was warm on my skin.

That day I cried my last.

FIVE YEARS LATER

_The Ashton family were a pleasant family of four. They lived in a quiet village, and celebrated every merry holiday as it came. _

_It was summer, and they had gladly agreed on a trip to the beach. They packed a lunch, grabbed the sun cream and went to the beach for the day, where the son and daughter made sand castles and splashed in the sea, and Mrs Ashton sat in a pull-out chair and gladly laid back to enjoy the sun. Mr Ashton sat in his chair admiring the weather and his beautiful family._

I closed the newspaper I was reading, but kept my finger in the "Story" section. I looked up. There was no sign of any bus, yet.

A grey haired, dark skinned lady sat next to me. I ignored her and opened the newspaper again. I continued reading for a second when the lady spoke.

"It's been a while since we last spoke, you probably don't notice me." She said. I looked up from the newspaper to see a pair of kind, brown eyes and a very familiar smile.

"Honour May," She said, holding her hand out. I shook her hand with a smile.

"It's been a _very_ long time." I said, closing the newspaper completely. "How have you been?" I asked.

"I've been better." She replied with a warm smile, "Been a bit under the weather recently. Just going to the doctors."

"Oh, I'm sorry." I replied.

"That's quite alright." She said. "I'm dreadfully sorry to hear about your sister and your friend." I smiled weakly.

"It's alright. I guess you were watching the news, then?" I said.

"As most humans do." Honour May replied. "Are you at college at the moment?"

"Yeah, it's the winter break at the moment." I replied.

"Aw I bet that's nice. Well I do hope you're enjoying your holiday." She said.

"Thank you. And I hope you get better, soon." I replied.

"Oh, I doubt I will sweetheart. Everyone's time comes sooner or later. Some faster than others."

I paused.

"What do you mean?"

"You don't really think death has given up on you, do you?"

"Why are you saying this?" I asked.

"It's better you were aware rather than in the dark about things. You came to me for answers five years ago, well here they are: death never gives up – there is only one ending and that is of the lives. The last thing for everyone is the end, which is death. It's tying up every loose end. Killing off everyone who had anything to do with anyone who had a premonition. It will always come back for you, Sam. I'm sorry."

"When's my time?" I asked, shaking.

"Well, funnily enough the same as mine. Which bus are you catching?"

"The zero nine zero?" I said.

"Ah it's just on time." She said.

I didn't have enough time to turn around to see the bus had spun out of control and was heading right for me …


End file.
